
Class ^ cAkl_ 
Book M-^- 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



/ 



Facts and Falsehoods 

Concerning the War ^'^ 
on the South 
1861-1865 



By George Edmonds ^,u> 



PRICE. 50 CEA^/S : .. 



FOR SALE BY 

A. R. TAYLOR & CO. 

MEMPHIS TENN. 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 

Two Copies Received 

JUN*10 1904 

eooyrt^ht Entry 

CLASS /\ XXo. No. 

COPY B 



Copyright, 1904, By Spence Hall I^amb. 



To the People of the South 

This little work is offered. It does not aspire to the dignity 
of History. It is mostly a collection of facts under one cover, 
which I trust will prove of use to the future historians of the 
South. Perhaps the fittest title to this work would be "A Pro- 
test Against Injustice" — the injustice of misrepresentation — of 
false charges — of lies. The feeling of injustice certainly in- 
spired the idea of this work. The greater number of the facts 
herein laid before the reader were not drawn from Southern 
or Democratic sources, but from high Republican authorities. 
Part first of this work presents Abraham Lincoln to the people 
of this generation as his contemporaries saw and knew him. 
The characteristics portrayed will be a revelation to many 
readers. As an offset to the falsity of Republican histories of 
the war of the 6o's, permit me to express the hope that in the 
near future our people will make more general use of those 
histories which are truthful and just to the South. For in- 
stance, the English historian, Percy Gregg's large history of 
the United States, might be condensed, or rather that part giv- 
ing the story of the 6o's couhl be detached, and published in 
one small, cheap volume, so that every family in the South can 
own a copy. John A. ^Marshall's large volume. "American 
Rastiles," can be used in every Southern school to rouse in the 
hearts of boys and girls hatred of Despotism. S. D. Car- 
penter's "Logic of History," and Matthew Carey's "Democratic 
Handbook" should not be allowed to go out of print. Both of 
these books contain much that will be of great value to the 
future historian. 



You may fool all the people part of the time, 
You may fool some of the people all the time, 
But you can't fool all the people all the time. 

— Abraham Lincoln. 



"All lies have sentence of death written against them in 
Heaven's Chancery itself, and slowly or fast, advance inces- 
santly toward their hour." — Carlyle. 



I sing the hymn of the Conquered who fell in the battle of life, 

The hymn of the wounded, the beaten, who died overwhelmed in the 

strife; 
Not the jubilant song of the Victors for whom the resounding acclaim 
Of nations was lifted in chorus, whose brows wore the chaplet of 

fame. 
While the voice of the world shouts its chorus, its paeon for those 

who have won. 
While the trampet is sounding triumphant, and high to the breezt 

and the sun. 
Gay banners are waving, hands clapping and hurrying feet 
Throwing after the laurel-crowned victors, I stand on the field of 

Defeat. 
Speak History! Who are Life's victors? Unroll thy long annals 

and say, 
Are they those whom the world called tbe victors, who won the success 

of a day? 
The Martyrs or Nero? The Spartans who fell at Thermopylae's tryst 
Or tie Persians and Xerxes? His judges, or Socrates? Pilate or 

Christ? 

— W. W. STORY. 
Blackwood's Magazine. 1881. 



ii. 



(b 



AUTHORITIES. 

The following are cited as some of the authorities for the 
matters stated in the pages of this little book and here sum- 
marized for brevity : 

1.— The Olive Branch, by Carey, Boston, 1814. 

2. — The Pelham Papers, published 1796, in the Connecticut Courant. 

Hartford. 
3. — The Logic of History — S. D. Carpenter, 1864, Editor Wisconsin 

Patriot. 
4.— History of the United States— John Clark Ridpath, 1880. 
5. — Notes on History of Slavery in Massachusets — George H. Moore, 

1866. 
C.— History of the Negro Race in America, 1883 — -George W. Wil- 
liams, first colored member of the Ohio Legislature, and late 
Judge Advocate of the Grand Army of the Republic of Ohio. 
7. — Abraham Lincoln — Norman Hapgood, 1899. 
8. — Abraham Lincoln — J. G. Holland, 1865, Editor Scribner. 
9.— Abraham Lincoln — Ida Tarbell. 
10 — American Conflict — By Horace Greeley, Editor New York Tribune. 
11.— Life of Lincoln- John T. Morse, 1892. 
12. — Life of O. P. Morton, Governor of Indiana, William Dudley 

Foulk, 1899. 
13. — History of the United States — Benjamin E. Andrews, 1894, 

President Brown University. 
14. — Life of Hannibal Hamlin. 

15.— The Story of the Civil War— John Codman Ropes, 1894. 
16. — Disunion and Reunion — Woodrow Wilson, 1893, Professor in 
Princeton University, New Jersey. 
»17.— The Real Lincoln— Charles L. C. Minor," 1901. 
18.— Lincoln and Men of the War Time— A. K. McClure, 1892. 
19.— Our Presidents and How We Make Them— A. K. McClure, 1900. 
20. — Life of Lincoln — Nicolay and Hay, 1890. 
*21. — American Bastiles — John A. Marshall, 1882. 
22. — History of the United States — James Ford Rhodes, 1893. 
23. — My Diary, North and South — William Howard Russell, published 

originally in the London Times during the War. 
24. — Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, 1885. 
25. — The Great Conspiracy — General John A. Logan. 
26.— Men Who Saved the Union— General Don Piatt, 1887. 
27. — Butler's Book— General B. F. Butler (Beast Butler), 1892. 
28. — -Executive Power — Benjamin R. Curtis, Judge United States 

Supreme Court. 
29. — Lalor's Encyclopedia — Edited by John J. Lalor, 1881. 
30. — William H. Seward — Frederick Bancroft, 1900. 
31. — True Story of a Great Life — William H. Herndon and Jesse 
William Weik, 1889. 
*32. — Democratic Speaker's Handbook — Matthew Carey, Jr., 1868. 
33. — Life of Abraham Lincoln — Joseph Barrett and Charles W. Brown, 

1902. 
34. ^Nullification and Secession in the United States. — E. P. Powell, 

1897. 
35. — Suppressed Life of Abraham Lincoln, by William H. Herndon, 

published soon after Lincoln's death. 
36. — Life of Abraham Lincoln, by Ward H. Lamon. 1872. 
37.— Story of the Great March— George W. Nichols, Aid de Camp 
to General Sherman, 1865. 
♦38. — Southern Historical Papers. 
*These are Southern and Democratic. All tlie others are Northern and Republican. 

iii. 



CONTENTS 



PART I 

CHAPTER I.— P. I. 
Abraham Lincoln. 

CHAPTER n.— P. 5. 

A glance over the country's situation at the moment of Lin- 
coln's death. Republicans drunk with joy. Their vindictive 
policy. They fear and distrust Andrew Johnson. 

CHAPTER HL— P. 8. 
The apotheosis of Abraham Lincoln ; its cause and efifect. 

CHAPTER IV.— P. 12. 
The estimate Republican leaders held of the living Lincoln. 

CHAPTER v.— P. 16. 

Wendell Phillips' estimate of Lincoln. Secretary of War 
Stanton's opinion. The Wade and Winter Davis manifesto. 
Stanton's first interview with Lincoln. His insulting treat- 
ment of Lincoln. General McClellan's letters to his wife. 
Lincoln reads Artemas Ward at Caliinet meeting. Chase's 
disgust. Lincoln's hilarity. Why did Lincoln appoint 
Stanton Cabinet Minister? Seward on United States Consti- 
tution. 



CHAPTER VI.— P. 2z. 

A Western Republican paper propounds the true Republican 
doctrine. 

CHAPTER Vn.— P. 30. 
Grant and Washburn defy Lincoln's authority. Washburn 
bullies Lincoln. A United States Senator bullies Lincoln. Senator 
Wade storms at him. Senator Hale assails him. Congress 
distrusts him. Rev. M. Fuller's opinion of Lincoln. Lincoln's 
trickery. 

CHAPTER VHL— P. 34. 
Herndon's pen portrait of Abraham Lincoln. A Springfield 
lawyer's pen portrait. General Piatt on "Pious Lies." The 
"real Lincoln disappears from human knowledge." Hern- 
don's "Life of Lincoln." Why suppressed. Extracts from sup- 
pressed book. 

CHAPTER IX.— P. 43. 
Lincoln's jealousy. His passion for horse races, cock fights 
and fist fights. Holland's comment thereon. Lincoln the "soul 
of honesty." He passes off counterfeit money. His "tender- 
heartedness." He sews up hogs' eyes. "The Old Huzzy." A 
great fight. "I am the big buck of the lick." 

CHAPTER X.— P. 52. 
Mr. Lincoln hates and despises Christianity. He goes to church 
to mock and deride "pious lies." Holland's strange story. Other 
Republican leaders despise Christianity. The four Ws. 

CHAPTER XL— P. 60. 
Lincoln's singular treatment of the lady he four times asked 
to marry him. His curious letter about that lady. His cruel 
treatment of Miss Todd. His home a hell on earth. 

CHAPTER XII.— P. 67. 

Mr. Lincoln's passion for indecent stories. Holland's comment 
thereon. The "foulest in stories of any other man." Governor 
Andrews' disgust. Lincoln writes indecent things. He dislikes 
ladies' society. 

CHAPTER XIII.— P. 73. 

Lincoln and Lamon visit Antietam battlefield. Lincoln calls 
for comic songs ; Lamon sings "Picayune Butler." General Mc- 
Clellan shocked. The Perkins' letter. Mr. Lincoln's reply. 

V. 



CHAPTER XIV.— P. 78. 

The true and the false. Apotheosizing writers. Miss Tarbell 
takes the lead. Why Lincoln's father left Kentucky. Apotheo- 
sis twaddle. Two little girls in the White House. More twaddle. 
A study of Lincoln's character. 

CHAPTER XV.— P. 86. 
A brief mention of the two policies. President Johnson and 
the Republican leaders. 



PART II 

CHAPTER XVL— P. 91. 

Antagonistic principles. The great American monarchist. 
Federalists fear and hate Democracy. War on the South began 
in 1796. The Olive Branch. The Pelham papers. New En- 
gland begins work for disunion and secession in 1796. 

CHAPTER XVH.- P. 100. 

Republicans cover up the real cause of the war. New En- 
gland secessionists. Their determination to dissolve the Union. 
Early and universal belief in the right of secession. 

CHAPTER XVHL— P. 107. 
New England's effort to secede in 1812, 1814, and 1815. 

CHAPTER XIX.— P. 126. 
More evidence of New England's disunion and secession work. 

CHAPTER XX.— P. 131. 

New England's three hates still active. The Republican party 
organized 1854. Ambassador Choate bears false witness. 

CHAPTER XXL— P. 135. 

Save the Union, free the slaves, the pretext, not the purpose, of 
the war on the South. Real cause, hatred of Democracy. 

CHAPTER XXII.— P. 151. 
Republicans ascend to power. Lincoln and Seward make am- 
biguous speeches. Webster Davis on the carnage of the war. 
Seward's remarkable letter to Lincoln. Nicolay and Hay's 
comment on Seward's letter. A moral pervert. 

vi. 



CHAPTER XXIII.— P. i6o. 

Seward's falsehoods. Treachery blacker than Benedict Ar- 
nold's. Lincoln confesses that he, at Medill's demand, made 
war on the South. 

CHAPTER XXIV.— P. 163. 

Greeley opposes war. He declares the right of the South to 
independence and the right of secession. Why Lincoln did not 
sooner begin the war. Why Buchanan did not begin it. 

CHAPTER XXV.— P. 165. 
Almost universal opposition to war in the Northern States. 
Indiana longs for peace. Morton's "desperate fidelity." "I am 
the State." Congressman Cameron's bosh on the "life of the 
nation." Nicolay and Hay's bosh on treason. 

CHAPTER XXVI.— P. 181. 

Why Grant refused to exchange prisoners. Grant compares 
Northern and Southern soldiers. Desertions from the Union 
Army. Riots. Arbitrary arrests. "Suspects." Thirty-eight 
thousand men and women locked up in Northern jails. Civil 
law overthrown. Lincoln disliked and distrusted. The peoples' 
indictment in 1864. Judiciary opposes Lincoln. 

CHAPTER XXVII.— P. 188. 

What a battle meant to Lincoln. Greeley prays Lincoln for 
peace. Rosecrans and Halleck on the peoples' hatred of the 
war. Soldiers dislike Lincoln. Judge Curtis on Lincoln's usur- 
pation of power. Republican writers, Rhodes, Aloore, Hapgood, 
Bancroft and others, laud despotism. 

CHAPTER XXMIL— P. 199. 

Lincoln's eagerness for re-election. His unlaw^ful use of the 
United States Army. Butler and Dana testify. Lincoln's crim.e 
against the ballot box and American freedom. Republican writ- 
ers unfit teachers of American boys. 

CHAPTER XXIX.— P. 209. 

Mr. Vallandingham's case. Unhappy condition of North- 
ern Democracy under despotism. Lincoln lays dow'n the lines 
of despotism. 

V i i . 



CHAPTER XXX.— P. 217. 

Was the war waged to free slaves? Lincoln on the negro. 
Van Buren. Lamon's evidence. Wendell Phillips. Lincoln's 
letter to Greeley. Seward's indifference to the negroes' fate. 
Grant's opinion. Conway's letter. 

CHAPTER XXXL— P. 220. 

The reconstruction period. Hate and cruelty. 

CHAPTER XXXn.— P. 228. 
Hate. 

CHAPTER XXXHL— P. 265. 
New England's strange malady of the mind. 



Facts and Falsehoods Concerning the 
War on the South, 1861-1865. 

PART I 

Chapter 1. 

"Abraham Lincoln has Long Since Entered the Sublime Realm 
of Apotheosis. Where Nozv is the Man so Rasli as to Warm- 
ly Criticise Abraham Lincoln^" — .SY. Louis Clobe-Democrat, 
March 6, 1898. 

The above sentence from one of the ablest Republican news- 
papers in the country is perhaps a little terser and stronger than 
the usual statement regarding the position Republicans are deter- 
mined Lincoln shall hold in the minds of men, but truly repre- 
sents the reverential attitude which is held toward Lincoln, not 
only by Republicans, but by men of all political parties. He has 
"entered the realm of apotheosis"- — to criticise him unfavorably 
is resented by Republicans as sacrilegious, and of every hundred, 
ninety and nine either believe that Lincoln is the demi-god he 
is said to be, or they pretend to believe it, and go their way, thus 
giving their sanction to the apotheosis referred to by the Globe- 
Democrat. Even in the South the real Lincoln is lost sight of in 
the rush and bustle of our modern life, and many Southerners ac- 
cept the opinion of Lincoln that is furnished them ready made 
by writers who are either ignorant, or else who purposely falsify 
plain facts of history. To such extent has this proneness to accept 
fiction for fact gone, this proneness to take ready-made opinions 
from others, that even in Mississippi the proposition has been se- 



2 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap, i 

riously made to place a portrait of Lincoln in the halls of the State 
Capitol. No doubt the Mississippi legislator who proposed the 
Lincoln portrait flatters himself that he was displaying a broad 
and liberal spirit ; ignorant of the facts, he believed Lincoln was a 
man of pure and lofty spirit, a patriot moved by a noble impulse 
to serve and save his country, therefore worthy of Southern as 
well as Northern admiration. Certainly no right thinking man 
would erect a statue or put a portrait in their legislative hall of 
a self-seeking, cunning, coarse-minded politician, a man scorned 
by his own official family and by the most powerful and prominent 
of his Republican contemporaries. Amid the universal din of 
praise that it has become the fashion to sing of Lincoln, only the 
student remembers the real facts, only the student knows not only 
that the Lincoln of the popular imagination of today bears lit- 
tle or no resemblance to the real Lincoln, but that the deification 
of Lincoln was planned and carried out by the members of his 
own party, by men who but a few short hours before Booth's 
bullet did its deadly work at Ford's theater, were reviling him 
as a buffoon, a coarse, vulgar jester. History affords no strang- 
er spectacle than this, that today, nearly forty years after his 
death, the American people. North and South, have come to re- 
gard almost as a god a man who, when living, and up to the very 
hour of his death, was looked upon with contempt by nearly every 
man of his own party who intimately knew him, even by members 
of his Cabinet, by Senators, Congressmen, preachers and plain cit- 
izens. The unthinking, who do not care to correct mistaken views 
of historical characters, may as well throw this book aside, but 
those who prefer Facts to Falsehoods will, the author beheves, 
feel repaid by reading on to the end. Nearly every statement 
will be substantiated by high Republican authority, the great part 
made by the closest friends of Mr. Lincoln, men who cannot be 
deemed prejudiced against him. In another issue, the Globe- 
Democrat says: 

"One thing is certain, Lincoln was apotheosized after 
his death. Had he lived 4000 years ago his name would now 
be enrolled among the gods of Greece and Rome." 

The first part of this announcement is true. The ceremony 
of Lincoln's apotheosis zvas performed soon after his death. 
The second part may be doubted. The men of ancient Greece 
and Rome whom their fellow mortals enrolled among the gods, 
were given that honor, either for some bold, bad, or good achieve- 
ment. History affords no instance of any mortal having gained god- 



Chap, i Facts and Falsehoods. 3 

ship as Lincoln did. The men who bestowed that honor upon 
Lincoln, though of his own party, though having known him' 
well during his Presidential life, had during that period openly 
disliked, despised, and distrusted him, and had persistently lav- 
ished upon him the most "venomous detractions" the English 
language afYorded. These facts will be proved by indisputable 
evidence. Why the Republican leaders who had always "ven- 
omously vituperated" the living Lincoln, the hour after his 
death made frantic haste to perform the apotheosis ceremony, 
and hoist their dead President up to the sublime realm of the 
gods, it is the purpose of the writer to show. We entreat the 
reader not to make the mistake of supposing that the apotheosis 
ceremony was a mere holiday affair gotten up to amuse or aston- 
ish the public. Its conception was a flash of genius. It was the 
last act of the dreadful tragedy of war, and the prelude of polit- 
ical plans of deep and far-reaching importance. The apothe- 
osis ceremony and its successful upholding during all the years 
(thirty-eight) since Lincoln's death, has done more to prolong 
the power of the Republican party than its victories and con- 
quest of the South. The old saying that "facts are stranger than 
fiction" is as true as it is trite. The most fertile fictionist earth 
ever produced has never created so unique, so incongruous, so 
unparalleled a character as was Abraham Lincoln, mentally, 
morally and physically, nor has the most inventive ever thought 
out so unexampled a career as was his from cradle to cof- 
fin bed. Nor could the most ingenious romancer, delving in his 
closet, have devised so original, so daring a scheme and so suc- 
cessfully carried it out as that apotheosis ceremony, planned on 
the spur of the moment by the Republican leaders, confused, 
confounded, alarmed as they were by the sudden taking-off of 
their first President. Although the writer of this has no au- 
thentic account of any secret caucus held by the Republican 
leaders in Washington City at the time of Mr. Lincoln's death, 
their entire unity of action in the unexpected emergency that 
confronted them is presumptive evidence that a caucus was 
held, almost before Mr. Lincoln's body was cold; that plans 
were made and secret instructions sent forth to the foremost 
men of the party, advising them of the course necessary to 
pursue, the tone, the attitude, it was the duty of every man to 
assume toward their dead President. The men composing the 
caucus saw as by a flash of lightning the vital necessity of conceal- 
ing from the world the opinions they and their whole party had 



4 Facts and Fai-sehoods. Chai'. i 

held of the Hving Lincoln. The preservation of party power 
was their first thought. They saw the black gulf into which 
their triumphant party would sink unless swift measures were 
taken. They realized the fact that if their President were 
known to the world as they knew him, the glory of their vic- 
tory would fade ; as he stood, so their party would- stand. If he was 
despised, they and their party would be despised. If made 
public, every venomous word they had flung on the living 
Lincoln would rebound on their party. To exalt the dead 
President became the vital necessity of the hour. The passion 
of the Republican heart is to possess power. They had won 
power through seas of blood ; to lose it now would be anguish 
to their very souls. To exalt to the high realm of godship 
the dead man they had in life despised as the dirt under their 
feet, was the first thought that darted on their agitated brains. 
To bury wath their dead President's body every mental ai\d 
physical quality which had so prominently distinguished him 
from his kind, and which had provoked from them so many 
gibes and jeers and contemptuous flings, was the first duty 
they saw before them ; the next was to manufacture an effigy 
of their dead President, clothe it from head to heels in attri- 
butes the very reverse of those the living President had been 
clothed in, and then boldly, under the wide light of the Nineteenth 
Century, start that effigy, that fake of their own creation, down 
the ages, labeled: 

"Abraham Lincoln, First President of the Republican 
party, the greatest, wisest, godliest man that has appeared 
on earth since Christ." 

The reader is warned not to commit the grievous mis- 
take of dismissing this statement as a fairy tale, or the mistake 
of fancying that its truth or falsity is of small moment. After 
a close and critical study of the case, the writer of this believes 
that the Republican party, from the death of Lincoln to 
this day, is chiefly supported by the fictions put forth in that 
apotheosis ceremony. These fictions, told and retold so often, 
have become almost the faith of the world. The writer holds 
that belief in falsehood is always injurious to humanity, and 
that the highest duty we owe to humanity is to put truth in 
the place of lies. When the apotheosis theory ceases to govern 
historians, and the real facts of the war of the 6o's are liajid before 
the world, Republican history Qf the way wil.l; sink out of i^ht as 
worthless rubbish. 



Chap. 2 Facts and Falsehoods. 



Chapter II. 
A Glance Oz'cr the Country's Situation at the Moment of Lincoln's 
Death. Republicans' Drunken Joy. Their Vindictive Policy. 
They Fear and Distrust Andrew Johnson. 

The awful war was ended ; the South had surrendered her 
arms and lay prostrate at her conqueror's feet, bleeding at every 
pore. Her soldiers (those not buried on battlefields) were slowly 
wending their way over their devastated country toward their de- 
vastated homes, shoeless, ragged, hungry, as they had so often been 
while bravely fronting and fighting the foe ; they trudged onward 
and Southward sadder than night itself. How different their con- 
(iuerors! These were feeding themselves fat at the grand feast 
of success ; were quaffing deep of the wine of victory. Lamon, 
the constant companion of Lincoln, has left on record the story 
of Lincoln's joy. Lamon savs : 

"Everybody was happy ; the President's spirits rose to a 
height rarelv witnessed : he was unable to restrain himself." 
So unable, the irascible Stanton called him to order, with a 
severe reprimand, as will be related later on. Lamon says : 

"An informal Cabinet meeting was held, and how to dis- 
pose of the traitors was discussed. Most of the members 
were for hanging them. Lincoln was then asked for his opin- 
ion and replied by relating a story. 

"I once," said Lincoln, "saw a boy holding a coon by a 
string. 'What have you got?' I asked. 'It's a coon,' re- 
plied the boy- 'Last night Dad cotched six coons. He killed 
them all but this poor little cuss. Dad told me to hold him 
till he got back, and Fm afeared he's going to kill this one 
too. Oh, I do wish he'd get away.' 'Why don't you let him 
loose?' I asked. 'If I let him loose Dad'll give me hell.' 
said the boy. 'Now.' said Lincoln, 'if Jefif Davis and the 
other fellows will onl\- get away themselves it will be all right. 
but if I catch them and let them loose, Dad'll give me hell.' " 

It was Lincoln's nature to make light of the crudest trage- 
dies, to find amusement in the awfulest horrors. The anguish, 
the agonies of the four years' war, the slaughter of 700,000 men 
who wore the blue, and more than half as many who wore the 
grav, Lincoln could joviallv liken to catching six coons, the killing 
of five, and the captivity of one. Not one particle of pity went 
out to the condition of the conquered. On the contrary, their 



6 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 2 

thoughts and energies were at work devising plans to still further 
make wretched their conquered foe. In all the long and woeful 
history of man's inhumanity to man, I know of nothing to equal 
th? virulence, the vindictiveness of hate manifested by Republican 
leaders after the South's surrender. 

"We've got 'em down at last!" was the exultant boast. 
"What next?" "They are ours by the law of conquest," said 
another, "ours to rule as conquerors rule." "We'll grind 
them down to the very mire of degradation," said another. 
"We'll crush every atom of rebel spirit from their rebel 
hearts. We'll wipe out their State lines and make territories 
under military rulers ; we'll confiscate their land, cut it up into 
forty-acre lots, and give it to the negroes. We'll enfranchise 
the blacks, disfranchise the whites, and set ex-slaves masters 
over ex-masters." "But," said another, "I've heard it whis- 
pered that the President means to be merciful to the Rebs." 
"The President !" was the sinister rejoinder. "In the future, 
as in the past, our will, not his, he done." 

Even as they spoke the sound of Booth's bullet smote upon 
their ears and for a moment they were dumb. True, they had 
never loved their first President. True, they had scorned him 
and reviled him, but they knew him, knew how far they could 
move him to go their way. They never forgot that before his 
election to the Presidency he had in a speech in Con- 
gress declared the right of secession, the right of the South 
to independence, and they knew how the imperialists of 
their party had easily induced him to recede from secession 
and State rights, and take up the imperial idea that seces- 
sion is a monstrous political crime, to punish which war was in- 
augurated and the whole Southland drenched in blood. This pli- 
able President was dead; how would it be with his successor? 
Could they put the bit in his mouth and guide him the way they 
intended to go ? Andrew Johnson was to them an unknown quan- 
tity. Would he be willing to wipe out State lines in the South and 
set over the people military rulers. Would he adopt the policy of 
confiscation? Would he see the utility of sinking the white men 
and women of the South into a deeper degradation than the yellow 
race on the Pacific coast are held in by the white? Putting a 
proud people, accustomed to dominance and freedom, under the 
black heels of savages from Africa would be a feat of such su- 
preme and unspeakable despotism as neither pagan or Christian 
conquerors ever before attempted. This feat they were determin- 



Chap. 2 Facts and Falsehoods. 7 

ed to accomplish. They knew that Andrew Johnson was a rene- 
gade from the South. They knew that he had been born and reared 
in the school of Democracy, which they hated and despised. They 
knew he had played traitor to the State of his birth, to the party 
which had honored him with the highest office in the State. They 
knew in the awful time which tried the souls of his people he had 
been false to them, false to kith and kin and blood, had fled north- 
ward and thrown himself into the arms of their deadliest foes. 
They knew when their first President let slip the bloody dogs of 
war, the triple traitor from Tennessee had sicked on those dogs, 
shouting as they leaped southward : 

"On. Lion! On, Wolf! On, Tiger! Catch! Tear! 
Devour !" 

They well knew Johnson's treachery to his own people had 
left a gulf between him and them, a grewsome gulf filled with the 
blood and bones of slaughtered men. Could any bridge span a 
gulf like that? Would not that gulf forever hold the traitor from 
Tennessee away from his own people, his own country? Why 
then did fear steal upon their souls ? They had heard it said that 
"the teachings of childhood are never wholly obliterated." 
What, if in some secret recess of Johnson's heart one spark, one 
single spark of Democracy's fire was left? What if that spark 
should revive? Should glow with life? Should break into 
flame ? Should fiare backward over the four years of Republican 
rule? Backward, shedding a lurid light over the horrors, the 
agonies, the anguish of the thousand battlefields, and the rivers of 
blood? Over the moans and groans of the wounded and dying? 
All these lay along the track of the four years of war. Added 
to these were the outrages to freedom, free speech stifled, the 
press choked breathless, the Constitution kicked into the Capitol 
cellar, habeas corpus bound hand and foot, the Supreme 
Court set aside as naught, the old Bourbon infamy, letres-de- 
cachet, resurrected from the ruins of the Bourbon Bastile, and 
brought to this country to rule in the North as it ruled in France 
300 years ago ; 38,000 of its victims yet lay in dungeon cells. 
What if these sights and sounds should stir the heart of that trait- 
or from Tennessee and he should come to feel that blood is thick- 
er than water, and his strong right arm should strike forth com- 
mandingly, and his strident voice say to them, the conquerors: 
"It is enough ! Stay now thine hand." 

Could they bear this from the renegade Democrat of Ten- 
nessee? Was not the South theirs by the law of conquest? 
Theirs bv the decree of the god of war? Before their excited 



8 Facts and Falsehoods. Chai'. 3 

minds flashed the possibihty of many things. What if speech and 
press should be again freed? What if the words of contempt, 
the vituperations, the abusive epithets they had so viciously 
hurled upon their President while he was alive, with which the air 
in and around Washington was thick, should be seized by a 
freed press, pilloried in a thousand columns and sent broadcast 
over the world ? Would not their party shrivel imder the expos- 
ure? It is said in the face of great danger Thought acts with 
lightning speed. Hardly had those alarmed Republicans asked of 
one another, "How escape the avalanche of calamities that 
threaten us?" ere the road to safety was lumined before their 
eyes. The apotheosis project was devised and so successfully 
carried out, even Democrats of the South and of the North are 
taken in by its falsehoods and often join Republicans in singing 
praises to the man whom in life his own party scorned and de- 
rided. 



Chapter III. 

The Apotheosis of Abraham Lincoln, Its Cause and Effect. 

McClure and other Republican writers inform us that two 
men, Mr. William H. Herndon and Ward H. Lamon, from youth 
up, were the closest friends to Mr. Lincoln, were trusted friends 
in the days of Lincoln's poverty and insignificance, devoted, 
grateful friends in the days of his power and high fortune. Both 
Herndon and Lamon wrote a biography of the man they loved. 
The highest Republican authorities testify that these two men pro- 
duced by far the best story of Lincoln's life ever published. Not 
a man has ever denied or doubted the honesty, fairness or truth 
of these two writers. I am particular in this matter, as I shall 
quote liberally from these authors. McClure's Lincoln, page 46, 
has this: 

"Lamon was selected by Mr. Lincoln to accompany him 
to Washington City, as a protector from assassination. Mr. 
Lincoln appointed Mr. Lamon United States Marshal of the 
District of Columbia, that he might always have him at 
hand." Schouler (good Republican authority) in his His- 
tory says, "Lamon, as Marshal, made himself the bodyguard 
of the man he loved." 

During his stay in Washington City, Lamon was Mr. Lin- 
coln's closest friend ; into his ears Lincoln poured all his little 



Chap. 3 Facts and Falsehoods. 9 

and big troubles. Lamon has left an account of the curious pro- 
ceedings which took place immediately after Lincoln's death. 
We extract the following: 

"The ceremony of Mr. Lincoln's apotheosis was planned 
and executed by men who were unfriendly to him while he 
lived. The deification took place with showy magnificence ; 
men who had exhausted the resources of their skill and in- 
genuity in venomous detractions of the living Lincoln were 
the first, after his death, to undertake the task of guarding 
his memory, not as a human being, but as a god." 

On another page Lamon gives specimens of the "venomous 
detractions" which the apotheosizers of the dead Lincoln had 
lavished on the living. Members of the Cabinet were in the 
habit of referring to President Lincoln as — 

"The baboon at the other end of the avenue." 
Senators referred to him as — 

"That damned idiot in the White House." 
Other specimens of "venomous detractions" will be given 
later on. Of the apotheosis ceremony, Lamon continues thus : 

"There was the fiercest rivalry as to who should can- 
onize Mr, Lincoln in the most solemn words; who should 
compare him to the most sacred character in all history. He 
was prophet, priest and king, he was Washington, he 
was Moses, he was likened to Christ the Redeemer, he was 
likened unto God. After that came the ceremony of 
apotheosis." 

And this was the work of men who never spoke of the living 
Lincoln except with jeers and contempt. Lamon says this "ven- 
omous detraction" was known to Mr. Lincoln ; the detractors 
took no pains to conceal it until after Lincoln's death, when it 
became a political necessity to pose him as the "greatest, wisest, 
godliest man that ever lived." Of the way such detractions 
wounded Mr, Lincoln's feelings, Lamon speaks as follows: 

"Mr. Lincoln was so outraged by the obloquies, so 
stung by the disparagements, his existence was rendered so 
unhappy, that his life became almost a burden to him. I 
went one day to his office and found him lying on the sofa, 
greatly distressed. Jumping to his feet, he said: 'You 
know, Lamon, better than any living man, that from my boy- 
hood up my ambition was to be President, but look at me ; 
I wish I had never been born ! I would rather be dead than 



la •,;--^-; Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 3; 

as Presidenr thus abused in the house of my friends.' The 
tragic deatSf of Mr. Lincoln brought a more fearful panic to 
his traducers titan to his friends." 
-* 
The rjeason of tfiis is plain. The few true friends about Mr- 
Lincoln ^ere not politicians. Lamon loved Lincoln for himself;, 
faults and all, and possibly for the favors bestowed upon him. 
The Republican politicians about him detested Lincoln personal- 
ly and had little or no respect for his mental ability, but the mo- 
ment after Lincoln's death they saw how disastrous it would be 
for their party and themselves should the public come to know 
of the low estimate in which they had held their first President. 
Continuing the apotheosis subject, Lamon makes the following 
remarkable statement: 

"For days and nights after the President's death it was 
considered treason to be seen in public with a smile on your 
face. Men who ventured to doubt the ineffable purity and 
saintliness of Lincoln's character, were pursued by mobs of 
men, beaten to death with paving stones, or strung up by the 
neck to lamp posts until dead." 

Who were the men back of these crimes? Who were they 
who in secret conclave decreed that a smile on the face should be 
punished as high treason? Who were they whose fine diplomatic 
art contrived to gather mobs on the street and then stirred them 
up to the madness of beating men to death with paving stones or 
hanging them on lamp posts until dead? For what 'object were- 
these desperate measures resorted to? The Republican writers 
inform us that almost without exception, every Republican who 
knew Mr. Lincoln personally, not only failed to see his greatness, 
but were so impressed by his littleness as to be anxious to depose 
him, and. put a dictator in his place. B. F. Butler, in his book. 
says several men were talked of for the dictatorship. Edwin 
Stanton more than once proposed to General McClellan to seize 
the reins of government and make himself dictator. Butler says : 

"There was a crop of dictators ; each party wanted the 
man. The zealous abolitionists wanted Fremont. The prop- 
erty men of the country wanted a property man. The New 
York Times, in an elaborate editorial, proposed that George 
Law, an extensive manufacturer of New York, should be dic- 
tator." 

Lamon says Lincoln was well posted as to -these dictator 



Chap. 3 Facts and Falsehoods. ii 

plots. So widc.«;pread was the dissatisfaction with Lincoln, so 
high and influential were the men en.c^a,G^ed in the plots, no man at 
the time offered any objection, no man, no Republican paper 
Cthat we can learn of) denounced the project as treason, oi» the 
projectors as traitors. No man urged, in opposition, the ability 
and fitness of Mr. Lincoln. At that time, as all through the 
dreadful four years' war, the word "traitor" was by Republi- 
cans only applied to men who did not advocate the war of con- 
quest on the South. The slightest word indicating a belief that 
the war was not just or was unnecessarily cruel, was enough to 
brand a man as a traitor deserving a dungeon cell. Among the 
distinguished men who distrusted Lincoln's ability, who scorned 
and reviled him, were Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. 
Chase, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Vice President Hanni- 
bal Hamlin, Secretary of State Seward, Fremont, Senators Sum- 
ner, Trumbull, Ben Wade, of Ohio. Plenry Wilson, of Massa- 
chusetts, Thaddeus Stevens, Henry Ward Beecher, Wendell Phil- 
lips, Winter Davis, Horace Greeley, Chandler of Michigan, and 
hosts of others- Yet all of these (with the exception of Greelev) 
immediately after the apotheosis ceremony deemed it for the 
good of their party and themselves to bury out of sight every "ve- 
nomous detraction" they had lavished on the living President and 
forthwith to put themselves into a reverential attitude toward the 
dead man and force upon the world the belief that Lincoln had 
been their wise and trusted ruler, their guide, their head, their 
Moses who had led them out of the awful Wilderness of War. So 
far as I can discover, Greelev Avas the only Republican who did 
not make a sudden jump from distrust and contempt to adoration. 
Zack Chandler, of Michigan, who had much to do with pushing 
Lincoln on to coercion, was among the number who were eager 
to depose Lincoln and put a dictator in his place. It was Chand- 
ler, who, before it became evident that Lincoln was determined on 
war, while more than two-thirds of the people in the Northern 
States denoimced the bare idea of coercion, wrote these sinister 
words : 

"This Union will not be worth a curse without a little 
blood-letting." 

Although Lincoln had gratified Chandler by letting the blood, 
and dav by day was still letting it from thousands of brave young 
hearts. Chandler was dissatisfied and wanted Lincoln removed and 
a dictator put in his place. 



12 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 4 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Estimate Republican Leaders Held of the Lning Lincoln 

In his history of the United States, Vol. IV., pag^e 520, Rhodes 
makes the sweeping assertion that — • 

"]_incohi's contemporaries failed to perceive his great- 
ness." 

Other Republican writers make the same statement. Yet 
none attempted to explain why those who best knew Mr. 
Lincoln failed to esteem or respect him. Chase, while in his 
Cabinet, had every opportunity to know Lincoln well. Tarbell 
^ayi : 

"Mr. Chase was never able to realize Mr. Lincoln's 
greatness." 

McClure savs : 

"Chase was the most irritating fly in the Lincoln oint- 
ment." 

In their voluminous life of Lincoln, Nicolay and Hav have 
this : 

"Even to complete strangers Chase could not write with- 
out speaking slightingly of President Lincoln. He kept up 
this habit till the end of Lincoln's life. Chase's attitude to- 
ward the President varied between the limits of active 
brutality and benevolent contempt." 

Yet Nicolay and Hay, and all other Republican writers, 
rate Mr. Chase very high as a man of honesty, talent, and patriot- 
ism. The reader must bear in mind that every Republican 
writer since the year i860 uses the word "patriotism" in a per- 
verted sense, not as meaning love of country, but meaning ap- 
probation of the war made on the South. To a Republican, op- 
position to that war was treason, support of it was patriotism. 
The worst scoundrel that ever lived, if he eulogized that war, was 
patriotic. Had St. Peter himself returned to earth and even hint- 
ed that war was cruel and unnecessary, he would have been 
called a traitor "and confined in a dungeon cell. Of a bill to 
create offices in 1864, Chase wrote in his diary: 

"If this bill becomes a law, Lincoln will most certain- 
ly put men in office from political considerations." 



Chap. 4 Facts and Falsktioods. 



13 



On this, page 448, Rhodes comments thus : 

"A President who selected unfit generals for the reason 
that they represented phases of pubhc opinion, would hardly 
hesitate to name postmasters and collectors who could be re- 
lied upon as a personal following." 

This is as near as Rhodes dare come in adverse criticism of 
the apotheosized man. Rhodes further says : 

"In conversation, in private correspondence, in the confi- 
dence of his diary, Chase dealt censure unrestrained on Lin- 
coln's conduct of the war." 

Morse says : 

"Many distinguished men of his own party distrusted 
Mr. Lincoln's character." 

On an official visit to Washington, February 2:^, 1863, Richar.l 
H. Dana wrote Thomas Lathrop as follows: 

"I see no hope but in the army; the lack of respect for 
the President in all parties is unconcealed. The most strik- 
ing thing is the absence of personal loyalty to the Presi- 
dent. It does not exist. He has no admirers. If a conven- 
tion were held tomorrow he would not get the vote of a 
single State. He does not act or talk or feel like the ruler of 
an empire. He seems to be fonder of details than of princi- 
ples, fonder of personal questions than of weightier matters 
of empire. He likes rather to talk and tell stories with all 
sorts of people wdio come to him for all sorts of purposes, 
than to give his mind to the many duties of his great post.' 
This is the feeling of his Cabinet. He has a kind of shrewd 
common sense, slip-shod, low-leveled honesty that made him a 1 
good Western lawyer, but he is an unutterable calamity to 1 
us where he is. OnK the army can save us." 

This was the way Mr. Dana and many other Republicans 
saw Mr. Lincoln before the apotheosis ceremony. After that 
ceremony the Honorable S. E. Crittenden expressed deej. 
regret that — 

"The men whose acquaintance with Mr. Lincoln was in- 
timate enough to form any just estimate of his character did 
not more fully appreciate his statesmanship and other great 
qualities. They did not recognize him as the greatest states- 
man and writer of the times." 



14 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 4 

Is it not a little singular that neither Crittenden or any other 
Repubhcan writer has made any attempt to explain the phenom- 
enon, that despite Mr. Lincoln's greatness and goodness not one, 
so far as I can discover, of his contemporaries perceived those 
qualities while he lived? The New York Independent, a strong 
Republican journal, in its issue of August 9th,. 1862, thus com- 
mented on Lincoln's state papers : 

"Compare the state papers, messages, proclamations, or- 
ders, documents, which preceded or accompanied the War of 
Independence, with those of President Lincoln's papers. 
These are cold, lifeless, dead. There has not been a line in 
any government paper that might not have been issued by 
the Czar of Russia or by Louis Napoleon of France." 

The state papers of the War of Independence were inspired 
by the highest, the most generous emotion of the human heart- 
love of freedom. The state papers of President Lincoln were in- 
spired by the meanest, the most scihsli — tiie pas^ion tor cou:|..cst. 
Is it strange that in tone and spirit, Lincoln s state papers should 
resemble those of the Czar of Russia? Both men stood on a 
despot's platform. 

"Our state papers," continues the New York Independ- 
ent, "during this eventful period (the war of conquest on 
the South) are void of genius and enthusiasm for the great 
doctrine on which this government was founded. Faith in 
human riglits is dead in Washington." 

Never spoke journal a more lamentable truth. P'aith in hu- 
man rights was not only dead in Washington, but the Gov- 
ernment in Washington was using all the machinery in its power 
to trample down that faith deep in bloody mire on a hundred 
battlefields. The Washington Government had gone back a 
hundred years to the old monarchic doctrines of George III., and 
was doing its utmost to quell and kill the patriotic spirit of '76, 
which had rescued the Colonies from kingly rule- Dunning, 
President of Columbia University, in one of his essays on the 
Civil War (the war of conquest on the South), says, page 39: 

"President Lincoln's proclamation of September 24th, 
1862, was a perfect plat for a military despotism. The 
very demonstrative resistance of the people to the govern- 
ment only made military arrests more frequent. Lincoln 
asserted the existence of military law throughout the United 
States." 



Chap. 4 Facts and Falsehoods. 15 

The President of Columbia University might have gone 
a Httle farther back and found that the plat Lincoln made for 
a military despotism was when he called for 75,000 armed men to 
invade and conquer the States of the South. The Rev. Roberl 
Collier, a distinguished dvine of Chicago, was on a visit t(' 
Washington City. 

"The Rev. Mr. Collier," says Lamon, "sharing the 
prevailing sentiment in regard to the incapacity and ineffi- 
ciency of Lincoln's government, chanced to pass through the 
White House grounds. Casting a glance at the Executive 
Mansion, he saw three pairs of feet resting on the ledge of an 
open window on the second floor. Calmly surveying the 
grotesque spectacle, Mr. Collier asked a man at work about 
the grounds 'What that meant?' pointing to the six feet in 
the window. 'You old fool !' retorted the man, 'that's 
the Cabinet a settin" and them big feet is old Abe's.' " 

Some time after, in a lecture at Boston. Mr. Collier described 
the scene and commented on the imbecility of the Lincoln gov- 
ernment : 

"Projecting their feet out of a window and jabbering 
away is about all they're good for in Washington," said 
the great preacher. 

The reader will observe the first line of this quotation : 
"Mr. Collier, slwriiis^ the prevailing sentiment in regard to 
Mr. Lincoln's incapacity." 

This sentiment prevailed up to the hour of Lincoln's (U>atli. 
.\s soon as the apotheosis ceremony was performed, the Rev. 
Collier made haste to assume toward TJncoln an attitude of rev- 
erence and admiration. 

"I abused poor Lincoln like the fool the man called me," 
said Mr. Collier. 

Charles Francis Adams wrote of the living Lincoln : 

"When Lincoln first entered upon his functions as Presi- 
dent, he filled with disma}' all those brought in contact with 
him." 

The dismay did not abate as the years went by ; on the con- 
trary, the opposition to Lincoln, the distrust, the disgust, in- 
creased from day to day to the hour of his death. In 1873 ex- 
Minister Adams made an address to the Legislature of New York 
on the occasion of Seward's death. On page 48 Adams said : 

"When Lincoln entered upon his duties as President he 



i6 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 5 

displayed moral, intellectual and executive incompetency." 
So far as I can discover, not during Lincoln's life did any 
noted Republican state that he displayed anything else. 
Jrne 20th Richard H. Dana, in the New York World, wrote 

llius: 

"I have had several interviews with Lincoln, Seward, 
Blair, Stanton, Wells and Chase. They all say dreadful 
things of each other, all except Seward. They are all at 
sixes and sevens. I cannot describe Lincoln. He was so- 
bered in his talk ; told no extreme stories. You feel for him 
a kind of pity, feeling that he has some qualities of great 
value, yet fearing his weak points may make him wreck, 
somethino-." 



CHAPTER V. 

Wendell Phillips' Estimate of Lincoln. Secretary of War Stan- 
ton's Opinion. The JVade and Winter Davis Manifesto. 
Stanton's First Interviezv With Lincoln. His Insulting 
Treatment of Lincoln. . M cClellan s Letters to His Wife. 
Lincoln Reads Artemiis Ward at Cabinet Meeting. Chase's 
Disgust. Lincoln's Hilarity. Why Did Lincoln Appoint 
Stanton Cabinet Ministcrf Seivard on United States Con- 
stitution. Stanton Bullies Lincoln. 

Not only in private life l)ut in public speeches did Wendell 
I'hillips speak of President Lincoln in the most uncompliment- 
•'ry terms. On August i, 1862, Wendell Phillips said to his au- 
■Hence : 

"As long as you keep the present turtle (Lincoln) at 
the head of affairs you make a pit with one hand and fill 
it with the other. I know Mv. Lincoln. I have been to 
Washington and taken his measure. He is a first-rate sec- 
ond-rate man ; that is all of him. He is a mere convenience 
and is waiting, like any other broomstick, to be used." 

In a speech made at Music Hall, New Haven, 1863, Phil- 
'ips said: 

"Lincoln was badgered into emancipation. After he is- 
sued it he said it was the greatest folly of his life. It was 
like the Pope's bull against the comet." 

In a speech in Tremont Temple, Boston, Wendell Phillips 
said to his largfe audience: 



C?i.\p. 5 Facts and Falsehoods. 17 

"With a man for President we should have put down 
the rebellion in ninety days." — Logic of History, page 12. 
Wendell Phillips, at a Republican meeting in Boston, called 
to express disgust at the conduct of the Government, said: 

"President Lincoln, with senile, lick-spittle haste, runs 
before he is bidden, to revoke the Hunter proclamation. 
The President and the Cabinet are treasonable. The Presi- 
dent and the Secretary of War should be impeached." 

In 1864, in a speech at Cooper Institute, Phillips de- 
nounced Lincoln's despotic acts in the strongest possible 
terms. Phillips said : 

'T judge Mr. Lincoln by his acts, his violation of the 
law, his overthrow of liberty in the Northern States. I 
judge Mr. Lincoln by his words and deeds, and so judging, 
I am unwilling to trust Abraham Lincoln with the future 
of this country. Mr. Lincoln is a politician ; politicians are 
like the bones of a horse's fore shoulder ; not a straight one 
in it. I am a citizen watchful of constitutional lib- 
erty. Are you willing to sacrifice the constitutional rights 
of seventy years? A man in the field (the army) said: 
'The re-election of Lincoln will be a national disaster.' An- 
other said : 'The re-election of Lincoln will be national 
destruction.' I want free speech. Let Abraham Lincoln 
know that we are stronger than Abraham Lincoln ; that he 
is the servant to obey us." 

August 5, 1864, Henry Winter Davis and Senator Wade 
of Ohio issued a very bitter manifesto against President Lin- 
coln, charging him with — 

"A more studied outrage on the legislative authority 
of the people than was ever before perpetrated." 

When Lincoln was asked if he had seen this speech of Phil- 
lips and the Winter Davis- Wade manifesto against him, he re- 
plied : 

"I have seen enough to satisfy me that I am a failure, 
not only in the opinion of the people in the rebellion, but 
of many distinguished politicians of my own party." — La- 
mon's Recollections, page 187. 

This occurred only a short time before Lincoln's death. Of 
all I\Tr. Lincoln's "venomous detractors," Stanton was the most 
venomous. It seems that Stanton first met Lincoln in Cincin- 
nati, in 1858. Stanton and Lincoln both gave an account of 



i8 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 5 

that meeting. Stanton told the story to General Don Piatt 
who relates it as follows : 

"A few minutes," said Stanton, "before I went to the 
trial of the McCormack case I met Mr. Lincoln for the 
first time. He had been retained to assist in the case and 
called on me. I saw a long, lank creature. He wore a 
dirty linen duster for a coat, on the back of which the per- 
spiration from his armpits had splotched two wide stains, 
which met at the center and resembled a dirty map of the 
continent. "I said," snorted Stanton, "that if that giraffe ap- 
peared in the case I would throw up my brief and leave." 
Lamon gives the story as Lincoln gave it to him. 

"On first meeting Stanton," Lincoln said, "he treated 
me so rudely I went out of the room ; saw McCormack 
and told him I should have to withdraw as his counsel in 
the case, stating the reasons therefor. McCormack went 
in and remonstrated with Stanton. "I will not," said Stan- 
ton, scornfully, "associate with such a damned gawky, long- 
armed ape. If I can't have a man who is a gentleman in 
appearance I will abandon the case." 

Lincoln was in the next room and heard every word. 
When McCormack returned, Lincoln -refunded his fee and left 
for Urbana, Illinois, where he related the occurrence to his broth- 
er lawyers. Stanton's disgust toward Lincoln never abated during 
Lincoln's life. He never referred to him except as "that gorilli 
at the White House," or "that ourang outang at the other end of 
the avenue." Before Stanton was appointed to the Cabinet, he 
was in the habit of visiting General McClellan. In McClellan's 
Life a number of letters to his wife are published, in which Mc- 
Clellan speaks of Stanton's visits. In one he wrote thus: 

"The most disagreeable thing about Stanton is the ex- 
treme virulence of his abuse of President Lincoln, his whole 
administration, as well of all the Republican party. I am 
often shocked." 

In another, McClellan writes: 

"Stanton never speaks of the President in any way 
other thanas "thatoriginal gorilla." Heoftensays: "DuChail- 
lie was a fool to wander all the way to Africa in search of 
what he could have found in Springfield, Illinois." 

In another, McClellan writes : 

"Nothing can be more bitter than Stanton's words and 



Chap. 5 Facts and Falsehoods. 19 

~ J [ 

manner when speaking of the President and his administra- 
tion. He gives them no credit for honesty of purpose or pa- 
triotism, and very seldom for ability. He often advises the 
propriety of my seizing the government and taking power in 
my own hands." 

In another letter McClellan writes : 

"Stanton often speaks of the painful imbecility of the 
President." / 

In McClure's Life of Lincoln, page 150, is this: 

"Before Stanton was appointed Secretary of War he 
was an open and malignant opponent of the Lincoln admin- 
istration. He often spoke to public men, military and civil, 
with withering sneers of Lincoln. I have heard him speak 
thus of Lincoln, and several times to him in the same way." 

"After Stanton left Buchanan's Cabinet he maintained 
close confidential relations with Buchanan, kept up a coric 
spondence, and in some of his letters he expressed the utmost 
contempt for Lincoln. In some of his letters, published in 
Curtis' Life of Buchanan, Stanton speaks freely of the 'pain- 
ful imbecility of Lincoln, of the venality and corruption that | 
ran riot in the Government.' It is an open secret that Stan- 
ton advised the overthrow of the Lincoln Government, to 
be replaced by McClellan as a military dictator. These let- 
ters published by Curtis, bad as they are, are not the worst 
letters written by Stanton to Buchanan. Some of them are 
so violent in expression against Lincoln they have been char- 
itably withheld from the public." 

— (See Minor's Real Lincoln.) 

In "On Circuit With Lincoln," page 428, Whitney tells of 
these suppressed letters. Hapgood's Lincoln, page 164, refers 
to Stanton's brutal absence of decent personal feeling towards 
Lincoln, and tells of his insulting behavior when they met five 
years earlier, of which meeting Stanton said : 

"I met Lincoln at the bar and found him a low, cunning 
clown." 

McClure says Stanton had little respect for Lincoln's fitness 
for the Presidency, yet to Mr. Buchanan during his Presidency 
Stanton showed an excess of deference. Mr. Buchanan, in a let- 
ter to his niece. Miss Harriet Lane, complained that Stanton, 
when in his Cabinet, "was always on my side and flattered me 



20 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 

ad nausemn." (See Minor's Real Lincoln.) Yet in the ytxr 
teeth of all this evidence showing how the foremost Republicans 
indulged in "grotesque descriptions" of Lincoln's person, some 
of his historians have the gall to charge such descriptions t •. 
Southern people. 

"Grotesque descriptions," says the truthful ( ?) Morse, 
"of Mr. Lincoln had long been rife among the Southerners, as 
if he had been a Caliban in education, manners and aspect, 
whose conversation would be redolent of the barn yard and 
pigsty." 

If such descriptions were rife in the South they were bor 
rowed from Republican sources. Was it a Southern man who 
always referred to President Lincoln as "the gorilla in the White 
House?" or "that baboon at the other end of the avenue?" W. : 
it any man in the South who called Lincoln "that long-armi. 
ape?" and refused to act with him in a law case? Was it ar 
man in the South who talked of "Lincoln's painful imbecility 
Was it the governor of a Southern or New England State wl 
said that "Lincoln retailed stories so obscene he left his pre 
ence in disgust?" Was it a Northern or Southern minister wh 
left the East Room, after interviewing Lincoln, "with a sicke 
ing sensation of despair that such a man was in such a position . 
Is it not time Republican writers should pay a little regard .'.; 
truth? They know well that the men of the South had little o- 
no opportunity to know Lincoln personally. Was Mr. Mor-.- 
really ignorant on this subject? Had he never heard of the "ve - 
omous detractions" lavished on the living Lincoln by men of h^^ 
own party? Or did he know, but, to carry out the apotheosis 
scheme, think it his duty to charge those detractions to Soutl' 
ern people? The most revolting story told of Lincoln (witft 
the exception of the comic song he called for on the field of bat- 
tle) is related by General Piatt, who had it direct from Chase. 
It is known that the Emancipation proclamation was finally put 
forth as a war measure. The days were very dark for the Union 
army. The Southern chiefs were still victorious on every field. 
Rivers of human blood continued to flow on battlefields. The 
hospitals in Washington were crowded with mutilated, wounded, 
dying Union soldiers. At this juncture Lincoln hoped the issue 
of an Emancipation proclamation would put new life into the 
Union army, would turn the tide of disaster and bring victory to 
his troops. The proclamation was written. The Cabinet was 
called to hear and consider it. The members met in solemn con- 



Chap. 5 Facts and Falsehoods. 21 

clave. President Lincoln entered ; in his hand not the procla- 
mation, but a copy of Artemus Ward's latest "funny book." Mr. 
Lincoln opened at the first page and read on and on, almost to 
the very last, amid roars of laughter from every Cabinet minister 
except Chase, who sat silent, with solemn, reproving visage. 
Now and then Mr. Lincoln would look up from Ward's "funny 
page" at Chase's solemn face and break into louder guffaws of 
hilarity, followed by the boisterous guffaws of all his Cabinet ad- 
visers except Chase. General Piatt says that "Chase's inveterate 
dislike of Lincoln's jokes and stories was a source of great 
amusement to Mr. Lincoln and the other members of his Cabi- 
net, and that Lincoln seldom lost an opportunity to entertain 
himself and them in that direction." 

"Both Stanton and Chase, " says General Piatt, "de- 
scribed these occasions to me ; Chase with an aggrieved tone, 
Stanton with hilarious laughter. The reader may judge of 
their sort when I state that scarcely one of Lincoln's stories 
would bear printing." 

On a previous page we have shown Stanton's angry disgust 
on seeing Lincoln's dirty linen duster. Soap and water can wash 
dust away ; no amount of soap and water will wash away mental 
and moral foulness. Stanton turned up his nose at the dust, but 
laughed hilariously at Lincoln's moral foulness. Lincoln's ap- 
pointment of his bitterest enemy, and the bitter enemy of the Re- 
publican party, to the high office of Cabinet Minister not only 
astonished, it angered Republicans. It was well known that Stan- 
ton all his life had called himself a Democrat, had served the 
Democratic party as Cabinet Alinister during President Buchan- 
an's administration, and had always professed to be a pro-slavery 
man. While in Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet, Stanton had accepted 
the opinion expressed by President Buchanan and his constitution- 
al advisers, that neither the President or Congress had any con- 
stitutional right to coerce seceding States. Knowing such were 
the opinions Stanton professed, why did Lincoln put him in his 
Cabinet? This was the question of the hour. Hapgood says of 
Stanton's appointment: 

"No man not a Southern rebel had less right to expect 
office from Lincoln than Stanton. Most men who had ex- 
pressed the opinions held by Stanton would have had scruples 
of delicacy about coming in close relationship of confidential 
adviser with the object of their contempt. No scruple de- 
layed Stanton : his acceptance was prompt." 



22 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 5 

Stanton accepted office because he wanted place and power ; 
he had no principles to stand in his way. Always eager to eulo- 
gize the man his party had deified, Flapg^ood calls Lincoln's ap- 
pointment of Stanton "brilliant mag-nanimity." This, however, 
is only apotheosis twaddle to which Republican writers resort to 
support the theory of Lincoln's divinity. Those who knew Mr. 
Lincoln's mental and moral peculiarities explain the real- reasons 
which made him show more favors to enemies than to those who 
had faithfully worked for him. The following is Herndon's ex- 
planation : 

"Lincoln always gave more to his enemies than to his 
friends. In the close calculations of attaching the factions 
to himself he coimted on the affection of his friends to serve 
him and tried to appease his enemies by gifts. There was 
always truth in the charge of his friends that he failed to re- 
ciprocate their devotion with favors ; adhesion to his interests 
was what Lincoln wanted. If he got adhesion gratuitiously 
he never wasted his gifts paying for it." 

Herndon bluntly says in his suppressed Life of Lincoln : 

"Lincoln had no gratitude. He accepted the services of 
his friends as his due, and never thought of making any re- 
turns." 

Morse, Vbl. i, page 327, says: 

"Stanton carried his revilings of the President to the 
point of coarse, personal insults." 

On another page Morse speaks of Stanton's "habitual in- 
sults." Lincoln knew of these insults, yet when it was determin- 
ed that Cameron should vacate the Cabinet, Lincoln said to Chase: 
"I know that Stanton dislikes me, but I wish to see him. 
Ask him to call and see me." 

Stanton called, and after some talk, Lincoln said : 

"The office of Secretary of War will soon be vacant. 
Will you accept it?" 

Stanton was chmifounded. This "long-armed ape," this 
"gorilla," this "baboon," whom he had so bitterly scorned and 
reviled, offered him one of the highest offi.ces in his gift. On re- 
covering his breath, Stanton did not, like the surprised maiden, 
blush and say: "This is so sudden," but he said something very 
like it. 

"You take me by surprise. Will you give me a day to 
consider it?" 



Chap. 6 F.\cts and Falsehoods. 23 

Hapgood says he promptly accepted. General Piatt, who 
well knew Stanton, was so astonished, he said to him : 

"How can you reconcile your contempt for Lincoln, and 
vour widely different views on politics, with service under 
him ?" 

Stanton evaded reply, but Piatt, who worshipped Stanton's 
success, as it was his nature to worship successful men and suc- 
cessful measures, and who believed that God had called Stanton, 
as well as Lincoln, to the front, undertakes to explain why an old 
Democrat, who, under Buchanan, had believed the South had a 
right to independence, was now willing to serve a President and 
party which, as was declared a thousand times during the war, 
were determined to "crush, conquer, kill or annihilate" the whole 
people of the South on the ground that they had no right to leave 
the Union. 

"Stanton," said Piatt, "saw the al)surdity of holding the 
Union by the rotten rail of a Virginia abstraction." 

The "Virginia abstraction" meant the United States Con- 
stitution, concerning which Seward had given Piatt a lesson. 
"We are bound to the tail of a paper kite," said Seward 
to Piatt, "called the Constitution. A written Constitution 
is dangerous to us of the North. The South is using it as 
a shield." 

The Constitution 7cas dangerous to "us (the Rei)ul)lican par- 
ty) of the North." Tt stood in the way of that party's imperial 
policv of conquest. The Republican party kicked the Constitu- 
tion into the Capitol cellar to clear the way for conquest. 

CHAPTER VI. 

A Western Republican Paper Propounds tJie True Rcpnhliean 
Doctrine. 

The Lemars (la.) Sentinel. 1879, fearlessly propounded Re- 
publican doctrines. 

"Xo reasonable man." said the Sentinel, "will say that 
President Buchanan was wrong when he said that the North 
had no constitutional right to coerce seceding I^tates, but what 
of that!" I^p jumped Abraham Lincoln, the rail-splitter, 
and kicked the Constitution into the Capitol cellar, and call- 
ed for 75,000 armed men to march down and conquer the 
South, and when the 75.000 proved not enough, the rail- 



24 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 6 

splitter called for more, and more, until he had over 2,000,- 
000 armed men, and he sent 'em down to burn and pillage, to 
kill, conquer or annihilate traitors to our glorious Union, the 
Constitution all the while in the Capitol cellar." 

Although every intelligent man in the Republican party 
knows that their party despised the Constitution,- still as the great 
body of the North's people had not lost love and reverence for it, 
few Republicans openly denounced it. Wendell Philips, Lloyd 
Garrison, and other bold men, time and again, had publicly de- 
nounced the Constitution and shouted aloud their desire to tear 
it in pieces. Beecher, from his pulpit, contemptuously called the 
Constitution a "sheep skin" government deserving no respect. 

If the Republicans were puzzled to understand why Lincoln 
(lassed by staunch men of his own party to favor Stanton, thev 
were at no loss to understand why Stanton accepted office from the 
man he despised. Piatt says : 

"Stanton and Seward rioted in the use of power." 

The souls of both these men were filled with the evil passion 
for power. Before Stanton's accession to office, why did he so 
assiduously pay court to General McClellan? Why use his utmost 
endeavor to inspire McClellan with scorn and contempt for Lincoln 
and his government? Why insidiously flatter McClellan? Why 
urge him to sieze in his own hands the reins of Government and 
make himself supreme dictator? In this dictator scheme did 
Stanton see a chance for himself to achieve power? Certain it 
is, Stanton's frequent visits to McClellan, his confidential outpour- 
ings, his flatteries, his desire to see McClellan make himself dic- 
tator, all stopped short the very day Stanton accepted place and 
power from Lincoln. From that day Stanton turned the cold 
shoulder on McClellan and reveled in the power his office gave 
him. 

In Lamon's Recollections of Lincoln, page 198, is this: 

"It was generally believed that President I-incoln ab- 
jectly endured the almost insulting domination of Secretary 
of War Stanton." 

On page 233 Lamon says : 

"There was a prevailing opinion that Stanton at times ar- 
bitrarily refused to obey or carry out President Lincoln's 
orders." 

Lamon so loved Lincoln, anything detracting from his glory 
annoyed him. He denies that Lincoln was governed by Stan- 



(-jj^p 5 Facts and Falsehoods. 25 

ton vet being of a garrulous turn of mind, and honestly believing 
th"; the whole wodd is interested in any and every incident of 
Uncoln's life, Lamon often relates incidents which directly con- 
tradict his o.;. previous assertions The following story to th 
ordinary understanding, goes to show that Stanton played the 
master over Lincoln : 

"On the night of March 3rd, 1865," relates Lamon 
"Mr Lincoln, with several members of his Cabinet, was at 
the Capitol waiting the final passage of bills by Congress m 
order that the President should sign them. Everybody seem- 
ed happy at the prospect of peace. A dispatch from General 
Grant was handed to Stanton, who read ^t, and handed 
it to the President. The telegram advised Stanton that 
Grant had just received a letter from General Lee, request- 
ing an interview, with a view to re-establishing peace between 
the sections. The dispatch was read by others of the par- 
tv Mr Lincoln's spirits rose to a height rarely witnessed. 
He was unable to restrain Inmself from giving expression to 
the natural impulse of his heart. He was in favor of grant- 
ing lenient and generous terms to the defeated foe. Mr. 
Stanton fell into a towering rage ; he also could not restrain 
himself Turning on the President, his eyes flashing fire, he 
cried ano-rilv 'Mr. President, you are losing sight of the 
consideration at this juncture, how and by whom is this war 
to be closed? Tomorrow is inauguration day. Read again 
that dispatch. Don't you appreciate its significance: 
If vou arc not to be President of. an obedient and loyal peo- 
ple vou ought not to take the oath of office. You are not 
a proper person to be empowered to so high a trust. \ou 
.hould not consent to act in the capacity of a mere figure- 
head If terms of peace do not emanate from you, and do 
not implv that you are supreme head of the Nation, you are 
not needed. By doing thus you will scandalize every fnend 
vou possess.' " 

How did the President of the United States receive this 
severe castigation? This insolent bullying from his Cabinet 
member^ Did he freeze him with cold displeasure? Did he 
resent with grave dignity? Did he break out in hot anger? 
Nothing of the sort. President Lincoln accepted Ins inferior of- 
ficer's scolding with the submissiveness which comes from an 
inferior to a superior. 

Lamon concludes the story thus : 



26 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 6 

"Mr. Lincoln sat silent at the table for a few min- 
utes, then he said: 'Stanton, you are right. The dispatch 
did not strike me at first as I now consider it' Then 
taking pen and paper Mr. Lincoln wrote a dispatch, handed 
it to Stanton, requesting- him to sign, date and send it to 
Grant." 

In this scene which man played the part of a snubbed and 
scolded school-boy? Which the part of an irascible school-mas- 
ter who had caug-ht the boy misbehaving himself? Yet poor 
Lamon's judgment was so befogged, his eyes so bedazzled by 
the glare of Lincoln's wonderful success, he could neither think 
nor see straight. On one page he tells his readers that his 
friend, his "benefactor, Lincoln," was always the masterful and 
guiding spirit, that even the bad-tempered Secretary of War 
was submissive and reverential to Lincoln. A page or two after 
he gives us a picture of his great man in the character of a 
whipped school-boy. It has been said a hundred times that the 
untimely taking off of Mr. L.'"^'-jIv. ^^a.? a v>'oeful misfortune to 
the Southern people.; that had Lincoln lived through a second 
term the Sou^h would have been spared the horrors of the re- 
construction period. This has been told so often, many North 
an.d South have come to believe it. It is quite possible that Mr. 
Lincoln would have lieen satisfied with the return of peace and 
the entire surrender of the Southern army. There is nothing 
in Lincoln's history to show that his heart had become gangrened 
with hate of Southern people, as was the case with some 
others. Lie had longed for victory, for i)eace, for a second 
term — these three things had come to him and filled his heart 
with joy. But, would these have satisfied the men who would 
have been around Lincoln? Andrew Johnson attempted to carry 
out the policy it was supposed that Lincoln had decided on, 
but the foremost men of the Republican party opposed that' pol- 
icy. Johnson's persistence came near losing him his office and 
his life as well. The great body of Republican leaders came 
to hate Johnson because of his more merciful policy full as 
intensely as they hated Jefferson Davis. The question is, was 
it Lincoln's nature to have successfully resisted the pressure the 
leading men of his own party would have brought to bear on 
him ? Could they not easily have forced Lincoln to yield and 
adopt their cruel policy of treating the South ? \\nien we con- 
sider how the leaders felt toward Mr. Lincoln, how little respect 
and esteem they entertained for him, how im1)ccile and inferior 
they believed him to be, it does not seem at all prol^able that they 



Chap. 6 Facts and Falsehoods. 27 

would have yielded their opinions to his. Though not want- 
only cruel, though not of a nature to seek pleasure by causing 
human suffering. Lincoln had little or no pity for |)ain. Unlike 
B. F. Butler and Sherman, Lincoln did not find gleeful delight 
in the power to humiliate, -torment, and torture the men and wo- 
men of the South who were utterly at his mercy. It does not 
appear that by nature Grant was despotic or unusually cruel, yet 
to serve his ambition he became the tool of others who were 
cruel. The reader must have noticed these lines in Lamon's 
story of Lincoln and Stanton, just related : 

"Lincoln's spirit rose to a height rarely witnessed ; he 
was unable to restrain himself from giving expression to 
the natural impulse of his heart. He was in favor of 
granting lenient and generous terms to the defeated foe. 
Mr. Stanton fell into a towering rage: he eonld not re- 
strain himself ; turning on the President, his eyes flashing fire, 
he said, etc." 

What so angered Stanton ? Stanton was not only a sav- 
age, ill-tempered man, but he delighted in cruelty. Did he fall 
into that towering rage because Lincoln was in favor of granting 
lenient and generous terms to the South? Was it of this leniency 
that Lincoln so swiftly repented and submitted himself to the dom- 
inance of the savage and cruel Stanton ? If this was not 
the cause of Stanton's sudden anger, it might possibly have 
sprung from pure irritability. The reader may remember Stan- 
ton's unnecessary fit of ill temper on seeing Lincoln arrayed in 
a dusty linen coat. Lamon says : 

"Lincoln was unable to restrain himself ; his spirits rose 
to a height rarely witnessed." 

The actions of a very uncouth man, even under happy ex- 
citement, may be very rasping to the irrital)le nerves of a cross, 
savage tempered man. Was it something of this sort that threw 
Stanton into that towering rage? Illustrative of the oddities of 
Lincoln's character, and the curious effect jo}- sometimes pro- 
duced upon him, we oft'er a little story taken from Butler's Book. 
After Fort Hatteras was captured by the I'nion forces Gen- 
eral Butler was so eager to be the first to carry the good news to 
Lincoln, he set off' for Washington City and arrived there late at 
night. Accompanied by Assistant Secretary of the Navy Mr. 
Fox, they drove rapidly to the White House, roused the night 
watchman, sent a servant to rouse Mr. Lincoln, and the two 
men, Fox and Butler, went into the Cabinet room to await his 



28 Facts and FAr,sEiiooDS. Ctiap. 6 

coming. Mr. Lincoln did not take time to dress. He entered in 
his night gown, barefooted. Butler concludes the story as fol- 
lows: 

"Everybody knows how tall Lincoln was (six feet four 
inches) ; he seemed much taller in that night shirt. (Fox was 
five feet nothing.) Fox told the joyous story, whereupon he 
and Lincoln fell into each other's arms ; that is. Fox threw 
his arms around Lincoln about as high as the hips. Lin- 
coln reached down over Fox until his long arms were nearly 
to the floor ; thus holding each other they began a waltz, 
fllying round and round ; the night shirt-tail was so agi- 
tated it fluttered in the breeze like a flag of joy. I was so 
overcome by the spectacle I lay back on the sofa and roared 
with laughter." 

The reader may remember Flerndon's description of the 
night gowns Lincoln usually wore: 

"Long, narrow, yellow flannel things which struck him 
just above his knobby knees. A young lawyer," says Hern- 
don, "on seeing Mr. Lincoln for the first time in one of those 
yellow flannel gowns was almost paralyzed." 

Morse wants it believed that Lincoln appointed Stanton to 
office because of his peculiar fitness. There is not the least ev- 
idence that Stanton had ever manifested such fitness, unless, in- 
deed, Lincoln fancied Stanton's scorn and contempt for him, 
his Cabinet, and party were signs of fitness. 

Morse (page 328) thus describes Stanton's ability for the 
office Lincoln gave him : 

"Stanton's abilities command some respect, though his 
character never excited either liking or respect. In his 
dealings with men he was capable of much duplicity ; he was 
arbitrary, harsh and bad-tempered. He often committed 
acts of injustice and cruelty for which he rarely made 
amends, and still more rarely seemed disturbed by any re- 
morse or regret. These traits bore hard on individuals, but 
ready and unscrupulous cruelty was supposed to be useful 
in war. Lincoln is the only ruler in history who could for 
years have co-operated with such a man as Stanton." 



Chap. 6 Facts and Fai.srhoods. 29 

What an admission is this! "Ready and unscnipiilous cru- 
elty supposed to be useful." Was it Pope's, Sherman's, Sheri- 
dan's, Brownlow's, Butler's "ready, unscrupulous cruelty" which 
recommended them to Lincoln's favor? Was it McClellan's less 
cruel nature which lost him the favor of Lincoln, of Seward, 
and Stanton? McClellan's orders show that he wanted to ob- 
serve the customs of war as established by civilized peoples. 
The above named army officers, except McClcllan, reveled in cru- 
elty. 

Morse (page 376) continues : 

"From Stanton's snug personal safety (in his office, 
supposed to be very dear to him) he delivered gross insults 
to the highest generals in the Union army." 

In Gen. Don Piatt's "Men Who Saved the Union," he says: 

"Without an exception Stanton was more subject to 
personal likes and dislikes than any man ever called to 
public station. Both Stanton and Seward were drunk with 
lust of power. They fairly rioted in its enjoyment. Stanton 
used the fearful power of the Government to crush those 
he hated, and used the same to elevate those he loved. 
His official business became a personal affair." 

Rosecrans unintentionally offended the ego of this despot 
in the Cabinet and Stanton's spite followed him through the 
whole war. Piatt says Stanton gave Rosecrans first neglect and 
then cruel punishment and abuse. 

"Stanton," says Piatt, "grew furious almost to insan- 
ity over the failure of his generals. Stanton was impa- 
tient, tyrannical and often unjust. Stanton left few friends 
in the administration ; liis unfortunate manner offended the 
officers of the army and irritated the politicians. General 
Grant hated him and tried to put Stanton on record as an 
imbecile." 

Notwithstanding Stanton's dislike and scorn of Lincoln up 
to the hour of his death. Republicans relate that Stanton 
stood by the dying Lincoln, and after the last breath left his body 
Stanton reverentially tinned his eyes up to heaven as he solemn- 
ly said: "He now belongs to the ages." 



30 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 



Chapter I'll. 

Grant and Washburn Defy Lincoln's Authority. IVashburn Bul- 
lies Lincoln. A United States Senator Bullies Mr. Lin- 
coln. Senator Wade Storms at Him. Hale in the Senate 
Assails Him. Rcz'. Mr. Fuller's Unfavorable Opinions of 
Lincoln. Li)icoln's Trickery. 

"Lincoln," says Lanion, "had given to Mr. Joseph 
Mattox and to General Singleton permits and passes 
through the line to bring cotton and other Southern pro- 
ducts from Virginia. Washburn heard of it, called im- 
mediately on the President and threatened to have General 
Grant countermand the permits if Lincoln would not re- 
voke them. Mr. Lincoln replied: 'I do not believe Grant 
would take upon himself the responsibility of such an act.' 
'I will show you, sir, ' cried Washburn, excitedly. 'I will 
show you whether Grant will do it or not.' Washburn ab- 
ruptly withdrew and by the next boat left Washington 
for Grant's headquarters, and soon returned, and so likewise 
did Mattox and Singleton. Grant had countermanded the 
permits. This was a source of exultation to Mr. Wash- 
burn and his friends and of corresponding surprise and 
mortification to the President. T wonder,' said he 'when 
General Grant changed his mind on this subject? Grant 
was the first man to give permits for the' passage, and to his 
own father.' " 

Sometime after Mr. Lincoln referred to the matter and 
said: 

"It made me feel my insignificance keenly for the mo- 
ment, but if my friends Washburn, Henry Wilson and others 
derived anv pleasure from a victory over me, let them enjoy 
it." 

Does this story indicate that the men in his own party re- 
spected or feared Mr. Lincoln ? How would Washington or 
Jackson or any other President have borne disrespectful treat- 
ment from inferior officers? On page 239 of I.amon's Recol- 
lections he tells another anecdote showing how little Lincoln's 
contemporaries respected and esteemed him : 

"After the war ended," relates Lamon, "a United States 
Senator called on President Lincoln to give his idea as to 
how the conquered South should be treated. As Mr. Lin- 



Chap. 7 F'act.s axd FAi.SKriooDS. 31 

coin (litl not readily accept the sni^s^estions, the Senator hnrst 
(nit angrily, "Air. 'President, it does appear to some of yonr 
friends, myself included, as if you had taken leave of yonr 
senses.' The Senator strode off in a rage; meeting' on the 
avenue a Congressman, his wrath exploded in words: 
'Lincoln is a damned idiot!" he blurted out. 'He has no 
spirit. He's as weak as an old woman. He never was 
fitted for the position he holds.' " 

"He is not fitted for the office he holds," had been the cry 
of nearly every Republican of distinction from the first day Lin- 
coln was seen in Washington, and that cry was kept up to 
the last day of his life. The apotheosis ceremony served no- 
tice on the whole Republican party that that cry must be forever 
silenced, that from that hour Lincoln must be viewed as a de- 
ified man, as one having entered the "sublime realm of the 
gods." 

Lamon has another story showing how little Lincoln's con- 
temporaries esteemed or respected him : 

"A short time," relates Mr. Lamon, "before the fall of 
Vicksburg, Mr. Lincoln said to me, 'I feel I have made Sen- 
ator Wade my enemy for life.' 'How?' I asked. 
'Wade,' he replied, 'was here urging me to dismiss Grant. 
I said, 'Senator, that reminds me of a story.' 'Yes! Yes!' 
he petulantly interrupted, 'with you, sir, it is all story, story, 
story! You are the fatlier of every military blunder since 
the war begun ! You are on your way to hell, sir ! and 
with this Government. You are not half a mile off this 
minute !' Wade was very angry ; grabbing up his hat and 
cane he went off." 

"Certain it is," comments Lamon, "had not Vicks- 
burg been speedily captured, Lincoln would have been de- 
posed." 

Lamon speaks of the "aggressive spirit of Congress toward 
President Lincoln," and of the ''small respect and less love Con- 
gressmen and Senators bore to the living Lincoln." 

Senator Hale, one of the foremost Republican leaders, 
from the Senate floor assailed Lincoln. 

"Senators," said Hale, "we must not strike too high or 
too low, but between wind and weather. The Marshal is 
the man to hit." 

Marshal Lamon being Lincoln's closest personal friend, 
Hale proposed to strike the President over Lamon's shoulders. 



32 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 7 

Lincoln himself told l.an'ion that Hale was hitting at him. 

"This opposition to Lincoln," says Lamon, "became 
more and more offensive. The leaders resorted to every 
means in their power to thwart him. This opposition 
lasted to the end of Mr. Lincoln's life." 

These men habitually referred to the Chief Magistrate of 
the Republic as "that hideous baboon at the other end of the 
avenue." 

McClure's Life of Lincoln shows the hostile attitude toward 
Lincoln of the leading" members of the Cabinet, and adds : 

"Outside of the Cabinet, the leaders were quite as dis- 
trustful of President Lincoln's ability to fill the great office 
he held. Senators Trumbull, Wade, Chandler, Winter 
Davis, and the men of the new political power did not 
conceal their distrust of Lincoln. Lincoln had little support 
from them at any time during his administration." 

The reader should bear in mind the fact that it is the unan- 
imous testimony of Republican writers that two-thirds 
of the people of the Northern States, from the very begin- 
ning of his administration, opposed Lincoln's war on the South, 
and contimied openly to oppose until the strong machinery of 
the Lincoln Government suppressed free speech and strangled 
the once free press. In the face of this fact the reader will no- 
tice that McClure, as other Republican writers of today, glibly 
and presumptuously call the small minority of Republicans who 
supported Lincoln's and Seward's war measures "the Nation." 
McClure, Morse and other writers tell their readers that two- 
thirds of the people opposed Lincoln, yet in the next breath tell 
them, "The men (Republican war men) to whom the Nation 
turned," etc. This is on its face false. The word Nation 
implies the great body of the people. The two-thirds of the 
people have more right to be called "the Nation" than the one- 
third. As two-thirds of the people made the Nation, and these 
two-thirds strongly opposed the war nicasures which Trumbull, 
Wade, Chandler and others who wcrj waging the cruel and 
bloody war which they, the two-thirds, fhey the Nation, bitterly 
opposed, it follows that tJiey, the two-thirds, "the Nation," could 
not and did not turn to those war Republicans for any purpose 
whatever except to condemn and deplore their evil work of 
blood. The custom of ignoring the great body of the people as 
if they had no existence is common in kingly countries, but 



Chap. 7 Facts and Falsehoods. 33 

was not in vogue in this Republic until shortly after Seward 
and Lincoln changed a free Republic into an imperial govern- 
ment. Observing Americans in England may have noticed this 
custom as seen in the London papers. When Parliament ad- 
journs and royalty and the high fashionable few leave the city, 
as they always do when the society season is over, the London 
newspapers calmly announce that "London is empty." And one 
high society man will say to another, "There isn't a soul in the 
city." One may often see this expression in English novels 
coming from the mouth of some high society man or woman. 
Some Republican papers of America are so imbued with the im- 
perial spirit they also use the insulting phrase. The Globe- 
Democrat, a Republican paper of St. Louis, in big head lines 
over an article concerning the recent crowning of the English 
King, made the following announcement: 

"EXODUS FROM LONDON." 

"The City Practically Deserted Since the Coronation." 

"Practically deserted," when four or five million souls 
were still in the city. These unconscious insults to the mil- 
lion working people in London come from the worship of royal- 
ty and the nobility. In America it comes from the worship of 
wealth and men in high office. In both cases the basic cause 
is the prevalence of monarchic principles. 

The Rev. R. Fuller, a Baptist minister from Baltimore, 
who was spokesman for the young Christians, wTote Chase 
from Baltimore April 23, 1861, of his interview with Presi- 
dent Lincoln, as follows: 

"From Mr. Lincoln nothing is to be expected except 
as you can influence him. Five associations, representing 
thousands of our best young men, sent a delegation of thirty to 
Washington yesterday and asked me to go along as chairman. 
We were cordially received. I marked the President closely ; 
he is constitutionally gay and jovial, but he is wholly inacces- 
sible to Christian appeals. His egotism will forever prevent his 
comprehending what patriotism means." 

(See Rhode's History of U. S. and Chase's M. S. Papers.) 

Rhodes states that Lincoln clearly said to the young Chris- 
tian delegates: 

"I have no desire to invade the South, but I must have 
troops to defend this capital." 

This was pure trickery on Lincoln's part. In the second 



34 Facts and Falsp:hoods. Chap. 8 

part of this work will be found indisputable evidence to prove 
the fact that before Lincoln entered on the Presidency, certainlv 
during- the first month of his incumbency, he, and Seward 
determined on war, and determined to make the Northern people 
believe the South began it. Lincoln w^ell knew his capital was 
in no particle of danger until after he himself began the war. 



Chafer VIII. 

Herndons Pen Portrait of Abrahatn Lincoln. A Springtield 
Lazuyer's Pen Portrait. General Piatt on "Pious Lies." The 
"Real Lincoln Disappeared from Human Knowledge.'" 
Herndons Life of Lincoln. Why Suppresed. Extracts 
From the Suppressed Work. 

It is known that the outside form of man or beast, the shape 
of his head, his body, the expression of his eyes, the tone of his 
voice, are indices of his mental and moral character. Few may 
be able to interpret these indices, nevertheless they are signs 
stamped by the Creator himself. For this reason I shall lay be- 
fore my readers two pen portraits of Mr. Lincoln, drawn by two 
men who knew him in Springfield — both drawn soon after Mr. 
Lincoln's death, and before his burial, as he lay in his costly cata- 
falque. Both of these portraits are taken from Merndon's sup- 
pressed Life of Lincoln ; both are reproduced in Mr. Weik's "True 
Story of a Great Life," purporting to have been written by Hern- 
don. 

Herndon's pen portrait of Mr. Lincoln : 

"Abraham Lincoln was six feet four inches high. He 
was thin in the chest, wiry, sinewy, raw-boned, and narrow 
across the shoulders. His legs were unnaturally long and 
out of proportion to his body. His forehead was high and 
narrow, his jaws long, his nose long, large and blunt at the 
tip, ruddy and turned awry toward the right. A few hairs 
here and there sprouted on his face. His chin projected far 
and sharp and turned up to meet a thick, material, down- 
hanging lip. His cheeks were flabby, the loose skin in folds 
or wrinkles. Llis hair was brown, stifif and unkempt. His 
complexion very dark, his skin yellow, shriveled and leathery. 
His whole aspect was cadaverous and woe-struck.. His ears 
were large and stood out at almost right angles from his 
head. He had no dignity of manner, and was extremely un- 



Chap. 8 Facts and Falsehoods. 35 

gainly and awkward. Tiis voice was shrill and piping. He 
usually wore an old hat and a faded brown coat which hung 
baggy on his long, gaunt frame. His breeches were usu- 
ally six inches too short, showing his big, bony shins ; his 
sleeves were six inches too short, showing his big, bony 
hands. His body was shrunk and shriveled. He usually 
slept in a long, coarse, yellow flannel night-gown, which 
struck him just below his knobby knees, showing his long, 
lanky legs and big feet. (A young lawyer first seeing him 
in this costume was almost paralyzed.) The first impres- 
sion of a stranger on seeing Mr. Lincoln walk, was that he 
was a tricky man ; his walk implied shrewdness." 

If the reader wishes to study the strange character of Mr. 
Lincoln, he must bear in mind the above description of his per- 
son. When wc present the salient features of Mr. Lincoln's men- 
tal and moral nature, the analytical reader can compare them with 
his physical, especially should the reader hold in memory these 
words : "The ilrst impression of a stranger on seeing Mr. Lincoln 
xvalk zvas that he was a tricky man." 

If there ever was a tricky man born on earth, it was Abraham 
Lincoln. Side by side of his own pen jiortrait of Lincoln, Hern- 
don places another, drawn by a Springfield lawyer, v.ho did not 
wish his name given : 

"I am particularly requested," said this lawyer, "to write 
out my opinion of the man, Abraham Lincoln, late President 
of the I'nited States. I consent to do this without any other 
motive than to comply with the request of a brother lawyer. 
While Mr. Lincoln and I were good friends, I believe myself 
wholly indififercnt to the future of his memory. My opinion 
of him was formed bv a personal and professional acquaint- 
ance of over ten years, and has not been altered or influenced 
by any of his promotions in public life. The adulation by 
base multitudes of a living and the pageantry surrounding a 
dead President do not shake my well-settled convictions of the 
man's mental calibre. Phrenologically and physiologically, 
the man was a sort of monstrosity. Hi? frame was large, 
bony and muscular. His head was small and disproportion- 
ately shaped. He had large, square jaws, a large, heavy 
nose, a small, lascivious mouth, soft, tender, bluish eyes. I 
would sav he was a cross between a \'enus and a Hercules. 
I believe it to be inconsistent with the law of human organiza- 
tion for any such creature to possess a mind capable of any- 



36 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 8 

thing- great. The man's mind partook of the incongruities 
of his body. It was the pecuHarities of his mental and the 
oddity of his physical structure, as well as" his head, that 
singled him out from the mass of men." 

Lamon says of Herndon : 

"He was a lifelong abolitionist, devoted to public phi- 
lanthropy and disinterested political labors. ITerndon was a 
fierce zealot and gloried in being called fanatic. He said 
fanaticism at all times was the salt of the earth, with the pow- 
er to save it. He was hot-blooded morally and physically. He 
had determined to make an abolitionist out of Lincoln when 
the proper time came, and he knew that time would onlv 
be when Lincoln could change front and come out without 
detriment to his personal aspirations." 

Herndon's work of converting Mr. Lincoln to the abolition 
cause was slow. Lincoln had not in him one particle of the stuff 
martyrs are made of. Abolition at that time was unpopular in 
Illinois. Lincoln was afraid to take it up and did not commit 
himself to it until 1858, two years before his nomination for the 
Presidency. 

General Don Piatt, an officer in the Union Army, a man of 
some culture and literary attainment, who knew Mr. Lincoln 
personally and greatly admired him, made a study of his charac- 
ter. In "Men Who Saved the Union," Piatt expresses the belief 
that God especially called Lincoln to office to do the work he did. 
Piatt, as well as Herndon and Lamon, did not approve of apoth- 
eosizing Mr. Lincoln. These three men were anxious to have 
the real Lincoln known to the world. 

On this subject Piatt wrote thus: '; 

"With us when a leader dies, all good men (meaning 
stanch Republicans) go to lying about him. From the 
monument that covers his remains to the last echo of the 
rural press, in speeches, in sermons, eulogies, reminiscences, 
we hear nothing but pious lies." 

Piatt refers to the lies told about Lincoln, but he makes the 
mistake of calling those lies "pious." That word is usually ap- 
plied to praise bestowed on the dead to please living friends and 
relations. The lies told about Lincoln were told wholly and solely 
for political effect, for the purpose of supporting the Republican 
party. Neither Herndon. Lamon or Piatt seemed to understand 
this, ^They wanted the truth to be known, biit tficy did not .^cem_ 



Chap. 8 Facts and Falsehoods. 37 

to perceive that the truth ahoiit Lincohi wotild injure the party, 
would helittle and disgrace it, would put a thousand clubs into the 
hands of Democrats to beat the ])arty down and out of office. Pol- 
iticians saw this, and determined that the real Lincoln should 
never be known. 

"Abraham Lincoln/' continued General Piatt, "has al- 
most disappeared from human knowledge. I hear of him, I 
read of him in eulogies and biographies, but I fail to recog- 
nize the man I knew in life." 

Herndon and Lamon also failed to recognize in the eulogies 
and biographies the man they knew in life. The thing they saw 
was not the portrait of the real Lincoln. It was the effigy which 
Republican leaders had hastil}- manufactured, after their apoth- 
eosis ceremony, and had started down the ages labeled "Abraham 
Lincoln, the first President of the Republican party, the great- 
est, wisest, purest man who ever trod the earth since Jesus of 
Nazareth." No man who will look at the facts of history can 
doubt the truth of this. 

At the time of Mr. Lincoln's death, 1865, his close and loving 
friend, Lamon, determined to write. his life. 

"But," says Lamon, "I soon learned that Mr. William H, 
Herndon was similarly engaged. There could be no rivalry 
between us. The supreme object of both was to make the 
real history and character of Mr. Lincoln as well known to 
the public as they were to us. Mr. Herndon, as I, deplored 
the many publications pretending to be biographies of Lin- 
coln, which teemed from the press so long as there was hope 
of gain. Out of the mass of these works, of only one is it 
possible to speak with any degree of respect." 

And that one (Holland's) falsified and whitewashed. 
For the above reason Lamon gave up his intention of writing 
Lincoln's biography, leaving the task to Herndon. Herndon 's 
Life of Lincoln was published soon after Lincoln's death. Its 
reception by Republicans was peculiar. Not a man at that time, 
so far as I can discover, denied or expressed a doubt of its hon- 
esty, its friendliness to Lincoln or of its veracity. Certain Re- 
publican journals wondered why Herndon thought it necessary 
to tell this and that concerning his friend's life. One or two 
made favorable comments. The GIohe-Democrat, of St. Louis, 
jL? late as 1897, had this: 

"Herndon's Biography of Lincoln is, in many respects, 



38 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 8 

the best that has yet been written. There is no doubt that his 
account is wholly trustworthy, and there is nothing more in- 
teresting in all the output of Lincoln literature." 

The editor of the Globc-Dcinocraf was an officer in the 
Union Army. 

In another issue of the GJohc-Dcnwcrat we find this: 

"There is no doubt that Herndon's account of Lincoln is 
entirely trustworthy. Herndon and Lincoln were practically 
in daily contact for over twenty years and their relations 
were entirely amicable. Life went hard with Herndon in late 
years (after Lincoln's death) ; he fell heir to a farm near 
Springfield, dropped the law and went into fancy stock-rais- 
ing, which soon resulted disastrously. Then he took to hard 
drinking and not long afterward died in poverty. He was 
Lincoln's law partner and closest friend for over sixteen 
years. His biography of Lincoln, in many respects, is the 
best one that ever has been written." 

Hapgood, in 1899, wrote an apotheosizing work called 
"Abraham Lincoln." Hapgood says : 

"Herndon has told President Lincoln's life with the most 
refreshing honesty and with more information than any one 
else." 

Such being the character of Herndon's Life of Lincoln, the 
reader may be surprised to learn that this work is not now to be 
had for love or money. Why? For the one and sole reason 
that it did not coincide with the apotheosis ceremony. It did 
not portray the character of Abraham Lincoln as the Republican 
leaders wished it to be portrayed. It pictured the real Lincoln, 
not the effigy which had been hurriedly gotten up by the apoth- 
eosizers. For these reasons, certain Republicans resolved to 
spirit out of existence every copy they could get. Agents were 
sent on a still hunt and every book they could find was destroyed ; 
even the publisher's plates were obtained and broken to pieces. 
A near relative of Herndon, in a position to know, is responsible 
for this statement. This relative further states the reason was 
that "Mr. Herndon had told too many truths about Lincoln." 
Truth did not harmonize with the apotheosis ceremony. When, 
in 1869, Lamon realized that his friend Herndon's work was pass- 
ing out of existence, driven out by Republican politicians, he 
returned to his intention of writing Lincoln's life. Lamon and 
Herndon well understood that Republican politicians did not want 



Chap. 8 Facts and Falsehoods. 3g 

the real Lincoln shown to the world, but did not seem to know 
that those politicians looked upon it as a vital necessity to the 
prosperity of their party to present Mr. Lincoln to the world, not 
as he was in life, not as they had known him, but as a deified be- . 
ing of unparalleled greatness, wasdom and virtue. Being either 
ignorant or indifferent on this matter, Lamon was as anxious as 
Herndon had been to show the public his hero and friend, exactly 
as he and his contemporaries in Illinois had known him. The 
"venomous detractions" of politicians in Washington City had 
not in the least shaken Lamon's and Herndon 's love for Lincoln. 
They scouted and despised the deification twaddle which these 
detractors put in play, even before the real Lincoln was cold in 
his coffin. In this spirit Lamon set to work, 1869, to write the 
true story of Lincoln to take the place of the suppressed work 
of Herndon. Poor Herndon was bitterly disappointed at the un- 
merited fate of his book.. He had spent a deal of money, time 
and labor in gathering materials — "rich materials" — had traveled 
far and wide seeking and interviewing the early friends and 
relatives of Lincoln. He had hoped not only to make money by 
his labor of love, but to win fame as the writer of the best biog- 
raphy of the greatest man extant. Lamon paid Herndon $3,000 
for the privilege of using his "rich materials." In 1872 Lamon's 
Life of Lincoln was published. It certainly is the best yet writ- 
ten, except Herndon's, but if my information is correct, the same 
influences which swept Herndon's book out of existence are at 
work secretly to destroy Lamon's. At this writing, February 
12, 1903, it is hardly possible to obtain even a second-hand copy 
of Lamon. Herndon's work was the better, inasmuch as it was 
terser and made no effort to whitewash a single act of its hero. 
Lamon had lived more in the world than Herndon, and felt the 
necessity of trimming and softening somewhat to suit polite so- 
ciety. Meanwhile, as Lamon put it, the press continued to teem 
with "pretended lives of Lincoln, not one of which deserved one 
particle of respect." These pretended biographies are fostered, 
and praised and cherished by Republicans. The falser they are, 
the higher the praise. A short time ago a Republican paper stat- 
ed that 800 different lives of Lincoln had been published. 

As time passed inquiries were made for Herndon's work. To 
allay curiosity as well as to impose another life on the public, in 
1889, twenty-four years after Lincoln's death, a three volume 
book was published by Bedford, Clark & Company, in Chicago, en- 
titled : 



40 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 8 

THE TRUE STORY OF A GREAT LIFE. 
THE HISTORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

BY 

WILLIAM H. HERNDON, 
For Tzventy Years His Friend and Lazv Partner, 

AND 

JESSE WILLIAM WEIK, A. M. 

If anyone who has ever read Mr. Herndon's suppressed Life of 
Lincoln will compare it with this three-volume affair, he will know 
that this last was not written by Herndon. The preface, without 
doubt, is Herndon's. The body of the work shows that Mr. Weik 
(as Lamon) had access to Herndon's "rich materials." But the 
object of the three men, Herndon, Lamon and Weik, was not the 
same. The two first really aimed to paint Lincoln as he was. Mr. 
Weik wished to please the Republican party. Herndon's preface 
shows that the purpose which dominated him in 1866, when he 
wrote the first life of Lincoln, was unshaken. He still, 1889, be- 
lieved the truth, all the truth, about Lincoln should be told, and 
although his first book had been driven out of existence because 
it told the truth twenty- four years later, Herndon still wanted the 
truth told, and had a hope the truth would be told, and might 
live and put to flight the mass of lies that flooded the country. At 
this time, twenty-four years after Lincoln's death, misfortune 
had overtaken Herndon. Disappointment, poverty, drink, had 
broken down the stern old fanatic who had labored so many years 
to convert Lincoln to the abolition cause. Weik's intention, it 
seems, was to concoct a book which would just give enough truth 
to interest, and not enough to offend the Republican apotheo- 
sizers. In his preface to Mr. Weik's three volumes, Herndon 
makes the following statement: 

"Over twenty years ago I begun this book, but an active 
life at the bar caused its postponement. Being now advanced 
in years, I feel unable to carry out the undertaking, and am 
assisted by Mr. Weik." 

Being advanced in years, weakened by drink and misfortunes, 
it can be easily believed that Mr. J. W. Weik financially remu- 
nerated Mr. Herndon for concealing the fact that not only had 
he (Herndon) begun to write Lincoln's life over twenty years 



Chap. 8 Facts and Falsehoods. 41 

previous, but had written and published it, and had witnessed its 
destruction by those he had imagined would set a high value on it. 
Weik, no doubt, fancied his book would sell better if it were 
thought to be the only life of Lincoln Herndon had written. In 
the preface to this Weik book, Herndon makes the following state- 
ment of intentions which are not fulfilled in the book itself: 

"With a view," says Herndon, "to throwing Hght on 
some attributes of Mr. Lincoln's character heretofore obscure, 
these volumes are given to the world. The whole truth con- 
cerning Mr. Lincoln should be known. The truth will at 
last come out, and no man need hope to evade it. Some 
persons will doubtless object to the narrative of certain facts 
which they contend should be assigned to the tomb. Their 
pretense is that no good can come from such ghastly expos- 
ures. My answer is, that these facts are indispensable to a 
full knowledge of Mr. Lincoln. We must have all the facts 
concerning him. We must he prepared to take Mr. Lin- 
coln as he was. He rose from a lower depth than any other 
great man did — from a stagnant, putrid pool. I should be 
remiss in my duty if I did not throw light on this part of 
the picture. Mr. Lincoln was my warm, devoted friend. I 
always loved him. I revere his name to this day. My pur- 
pose to tell the truth about him need occasion no apprehen- 
sion. God's naked truth cannot injure his fame. The world 
should he told zvhat the skeleton zvas with Lincoln, what can- 
cer he had inside." 

Thus wrote the honest old fanatic ; though broken in health, 
though reduced to poverty, he was the same man who loved 
truth and only truth. But the promises made by Herndon in the 
above preface are not kept in the body of the so-called "Herndon 
and Weik's Story of Lincoln." No ghastly exposures are made. 
The "cancer inside" is not spoken of. The "lower depths, the 
stagnant, putrid pool,'' are not mentioned. On the contrary, the 
larger part of this three-volume work plainly bears the apoth- 
eosis stamp, but it tells some things of Lincoln's early life which 
Republicans wish to bury out of sight. Consequently, even this 
so-called "'True Story of Lincoln" is under the ban, and almost 
out of existence. I am told that Appleton has just brought out 
these three volumes in one, and that certain facts incompatible 
with the apotheosis plan are left entirely out. I am not anxious 
to show my readers "stagnaiit, putrid pools," or "ghastly expos- 
ures," or "inside cancers," which have no direct bearing on Mr. 



42 Kacts and Fai.si:hoods. Chap. 8 

Lincoln'? public acts, but the character, thedeette,'- showing the 
moral qualities of the man our boys are urged -to emulate and 
revere, are matters of vital concern to all Christian- parents. For 
this reason I shall reproduce from Herndon's suppressed Life 
of Lincoln extracts showing what manner of man was the real 
Lincoln. 

Extracts from Herndon's suppressed Life of Lincoln found 
scattered over the pages of that work, which was brought out soon 
after Lincoln's death : 

1. "Mr. Lincoln possessed inordinate desire to rise 
in the world ; to hold high positions in high offices." 

2. "Mr. Lincoln always craved office." 

3. "Mr. Lincoln coveted honor and was eager for pow- 
er. He was impatient of any interference that delayed or 
obstructed his progress." 

4. "Mr. Lincoln was a shrewd and by no means an un- 
scltish politician. When battling for a principle, it was after 
a discreet fashion. When he was running for the Legislature 
his speeches were calculated to make fair weather with all 
sides. When running for the L^nited States Senate, he was 
willing to make a sacrifice of opinion to further his own aspi- 
rations." 

5. "When Lovejoy, the zealous abolitionist, came to 
Springfield to speak against slavery, Lincoln left town to 
avoid taking sides either for or against abolition. This 
course practically saved Lincoln, as the people did not know 
whether he was an abolitionist or not." 

6. "Lincoln believed in protective tariff, yet when urged 
to write a letter for the public saying so, he refused, on the 
ground that it would do him no good." 

7. "Until Mr. Lincoln's 'house divided against itself 
speech, in 1858, he was very cautious in his anti-slavery 
expressions. Even after the Bloomington convention he 
continued to pick his way to the front with wary steps. He 
did not take his stand with the boldest agitators until just 
in time to take Seward's place on the Presidential ticket of 
i860." 

8. "To be popular was to Lincoln the greatest good 
in life." Yet Republicans call him 'The Martyr President.' 
Do martyrs crave popularity ? 

9. "Lincoln made simplicity and candor a mask to hide 
his true self." 



Chap. 9 Facts and Falsehoods. 43 

TO. "Lincoln was extremely fond of discnssing^ politics. 
He disliked work. He detested science and literature. No 
man can put his finger on any book written in the last or 
present century (Nineteenth) that Lincoln read through. He 
read but little." 

11. "If ever," said Lincoln, "the American soci- 
ety of the Ignited States arc demoralized and overthrown, it 
will come from the voracious desire for office, the wriggle 
to live without work, toil or labor, from which I am not free 
myself." 

12. "Lincoln had no gratitude. He forgot the devotion 
of his warmest friends and partisans as soon as the occasion 
of their service had passed." 

13. "T^incoln seldom praised anyone; never a rival." 

14. "Lincoln never permitted himself to be influenced 
by the claims of individual men. When he was a candidate 
himself he thought the whole canvass ought to be conducted 
with reference to his success. He would say to a man, 'Your 
continuance in the field injures inc.' and be quite sure he 
had given a perfect reason for the man's withdrawal. He 
would have no obstacle in his way. 

15. "Lincoln was intensely cautious. He revealed just 
enough of his ]:)lans to allure support and not enough to ex- 
pose him to personal opposition." 

16. "When first a candidate for the L'^nited States Senate 
Lincoln was willing to sacrifice his own opinion to further 
his aspirations for the Presidency." 

17. "Notwithstanding Lincoln's over-weening ambi- 
tion, and the breathless eagerness with which he pursued 
the object of it, he had not a particle of sympathv with anv 
of his fellow-citizens who were engaged in a similar scram- 
ble for place and power." 

CHAPTER IX. 

Lincoln's Jealousy. Lincoln's Passion for Cock-fights and Fist 
Fights. FloUand's Comuicnt Tlicrcon. Lincoln the "Soul 
of Hone.Kty." He Passes off Counterfeit Money. Lincoln 
Sewed uf> Hogs' Fycs. The "Old ////.r.^''" Kicks Lincoln 
Senseless. A Great Fi^hf. "I Aui the Bis; Buck of the 
Lick." 

Lamon gives the same account of Lincoln's political char- 
acter. Lamon speaks of Lincoln's "burning ambition for dis- 



44 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 9 

tinction," which never abated, never ceased till Hfe ceased. Yet 
neither Herndon or Lamon even hint that any higher, less selfish 
motive than desire to lift himself in the world inspired Lincoln's 
struggle for office. We are not told that Lincoln had plans or 
dreamed dreams that if he attained high place he would use it 
for the benefit of unfortunate humanity, of the downtrodden. 
Since Lincoln's death his apotheosizers attribute high motives 
to him, but there is no proof. Those who best knew him saw no 
such motives, and, in fact, themselves did not seem to know such 
motives were desirable or expected. Modern Republicans call 
Lincoln the "martyr" President, and say "he fell a martyr in the 
cause of negro freedom." Those who well knew him assert he 
was wholly indiflferent to the fate of the negroes. Piatt tes- 
tifies that Lincoln "had no more sympathy for the negro race 
than he had for the horse he worked or the hog he killed." 
In all history I know of no public man who possessed less of the 
stufif martyrs are made of than Lincoln. Was ever a martyr 
"eager for worldly honors?" Did any man with three drops of 
martyr blood in his heart deem "popularity the greatest good in 
life?" Would any man, zealous in the cause of negro freedom, 
run out of the town to avoid speaking on the subject? Self- 
seeking politicians are too common for one to wonder at Mr. 
Lincoln's self-seeking nature ; such traits might be passed quietly 
by but for the fact that he is held up before the youth of this 
country as the model man whom they must emulate and revere. 
The very writers who record the ignoble traits of Mr. Lincoln's 
character themselves seem to be unconscious of the mean nature 
of such traits. Herndon and Lamon both picture the scene in 
which Mr. Lincoln stands up the central figure in a rowdy crowd 
of men. swinging about his head a bottle of whiskey, vaunting 
himself, shouting out, "I am the big buck of the lick! If any 
man wants to fight, let him come on and whet his horns !" Yet 
neither of these lovers of Mr. Lincoln seem to see the scene as 
any ordinary man of refinement must see it. 

On page 341 of Lamon's Life of Lincoln we find this : 
"Mr. Douglas' great success in obtaining place and 
distinction (in advance of Mr. Lincoln) was a standing of- 
fense to Mr. Lincoln's self-love and individual ambition. 
He was intensely jealous of Douglas and longed to pull him 
down and outstrip him in the race for popular favor, which 
both considered the chief end of man." 

If this be true, and I have found nothing in any history of 



Chap. 9 Facts and Falsehoods. 45 

Mr. Lincoln's life (except unsupported assertions) to contradict 
its truth, it shows a man of mean and selfish nature, jealousy 
is a feeling born of selfishness. No generous, large-minded man 
or woman can be jealous of another's success. In the case of 
Lincoln and Douglas, it appears that neither man was inspired 
by any feeling higher than the desire for his own individual suc- 
cess ; neither seems to have cherished the hope of serving his fel- 
low-men. Since the apotheosis ceremony, Republican writ- 
ers and politicians assert and re-assert the fiction that from boy- 
hood up the great ambition of Lincoln's heart was to free slaves. 
This is false, as those few who knew Lincoln well have stated 
time and again. The foregoing extracts from Herndon throws 
some light on Mr. Lincoln's political character. I will now give 
extracts from Herndon and Lamon, showing Mr. Lincoln's every 
day social life — the amusements and the companions he was fond 
of. 

Herndon says: 

"Lincoln's highest delight was to be in the midst of a 
crowd of rowdy men, engaged in a fist fight with some man, 
while the crowd betted on the result. Money, whiskey, 
knives, tobacco, all sorts of small properties were at stake. 
Lincoln was uncommonly muscular. It is related that he 
could lift a barrel of whiskey and drink out of its bung hole. 
Lincoln's next highest delight was in talking over these fist 
fights." 

Lamon and Herndon both say : 

"Lincoln was extremely fond of horse races and cock 
fights, and had a passion to spin yarns on street corners or 
in grocery stores (dram shops) to a crowd of boys. Yarns 
alzvays too vulgar to be repeated. These yarns Lincoln 
would tell in the presence of preachers. He could not realize 
the oflfense of telling a vulgar yarn if a preacher was pres- 
ent." 

It is to be hoped the great majority of self-respecting men 
will not tell vulgar yarns in anybody's presence. 

Hapgood calls Lincoln's passion for fist fights, cock fights 
and horse races "an innocent sporting tendency." Is there a 
Christian mother or father in America who would not be pained 
to know their sons indulged in "innocent sporting tendencies" of 
this sort? - 

Mr. Holland boldly says of this period of Lincoln's life : 



46 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 9 

"He was a man after God's own pattern." 
Holland makes this remarkable statement : 

"Living among the roughest men, many addicted to the 
coarsest vices, Lincoln never acquired a vice. There was no 
taint on his moral character. No stimulant ever entered 
his lips. No profanity ever came from them." 

Lamon, Herndon, Dennis Hanks (Lincoln's cousin, brought 
up in the same town with Lincoln, as intimate as a brother), and 
others testify that Lincoln drank whiskey drams, but he was not 
a drunkard. Lamon says Lincoln always took his dram when 
asked, and played seven-up at night and made a good game. 
Holland admits Lincoln's passion for telling "vulgar stories, too 
indecent to be printed." To many persons this passion appears 
to be a very serious vice — a vice if indulged in by sons or daugh- 
ters would deeply pain any decent parent. 

Mr. Hay, present Secretary of State, said of Lincoln : "He 
was the finest character since Christ." Tt is hardly possible that 
Mr. Hay was ignorant of Lincoln's real character. It is hardly 
possible that he did not know the opinions which T^incoln's con- 
temporaries in Washington City held of him during his life. Yet 
in support of the apotheosis ceremony, Mr. Hay thinks it nec- 
essary to talk twaddle about i\Ir. Lincoln. 

"Abe," says Lamon (page 56), never liked ardent spir- 
its, but he took his dram as others did. He was a natural 
politician, extremely ambitious and anxious to be popular. 
For this reason, and this alone, he drank with the boys, li 
he could have avoided drinking without giving offense, he 
gladly would have done it. But he coveted the applause of 
his pot-companions, and because he could not get it other- 
wise, he made pretense of enjoying his liquor as they did. 
The people drank, and Abe was always for doing what the 
people did. Abe was often at the Gentryville grocery, and 
would stay long at night, telling stories and cracking jokes." 

"Pot-companions," and this is the man Republicans tell our 
boys was like unto Christ. Do these men wish to make infidels 
of American boys? Flow can any boy reverence Jesus of Naz- 
areth if he believes he was like Abraham Lincoln?" Drank drams 
;ind told indecent stories to his "pot-companions." 

Mr. Herndon's suppressed Life of Lincoln says: 

"Lincoln disliked the society of ladies. He wriggled 
and squirmed when in their presence, anxious to get away." 



Chap. 9 Facts and Falsehoods. 47 

Some of Lincoln's bioijraphies, written accordinj^ to tlic 
apotheo,<^is plan, boldly assert that Lincoln was very fond of the 
society of refined ladies. Refined ladies were the sort Lincoln 
most disliked — he felt restrained in their presence. No man who 
knew Lincoln said he was fond of ladies' society. 

Herndon says : 

"Lincoln was the soul of honesty. He was called Hon- 
est Abe Lincoln." 

"Honesty was Lincoln's polar star." 

Mr. Lincoln appears not to have possessed what is called 
the "money grip." He cared little for money. He never made 
exorbitant charges for his law services. Money was not his pas- 
sion. His instincts did not lead him into crooked ways to get 
money, or into mean ways to keep it. Politics was Lincoln's pas- 
sion. Was he honest in politics? Both Lamon and Herndon 
testify that he deceived and used trickery to gain votes. Is it 
not as dishonest to gain votes by false pretense as to gain money? 
Are American boys to be taught that political dishonesty is hon- 
orable? But, on money matters, as on other questions, Mr. Lin- 
coln's biographers have hazy ideas of honesty. Instance the 
following story applaudingly related by Lamon and other biog- 
raphers : When Lincoln was nineteen years old he hired to Mr. 
Gentry to go with his young son, Allen Gentry, on a flatboat down 
the Mississippi River on a trading trip. The boat was loaded 
with produce to be sold to farmers settled on the river bank. Lin- 
coln's duty was to help row the boat and help sell the produce, 
for which he was paid eight dollars per month. In the course 
of his business, young Gentry received a quantity of counterfeit 
money. "Never mind," said Lincoln, "I will pass it off on some 
other fellow," which he did. Of this transaction, Lamon says: 

"The trip of young Gentry and Lincoln was a very prof- 
itable one. Abe displayed his genius for mercantile affairs 
by handsomely passing off on the innocent folks along the 
river some counterfeit money which had been imposed on 
young Gentry." 

Shall the youth of this country be taught that to "pass coun 
terfeit money on innocent folks" displays "genius for mercantile 
affairs?"" To applaud dishonesty is to teach dishonesty. After 
relating the counterfeit money story, Lamon put the following 
note at the bottom of the page : 



48 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 9 

"It must be remembered that counterfeit money was the 
principal currency along the river at that period." 

This is not true. It has always been in this country a pen- 
itentiary offense to pass counterfeit money. The settlers along 
the river were neither fools nor savages. Many were educated 
men and women, emigrants from the Atlantic States. They well 
knew the danger and dishonesty of passing counterfeit money. 
I have talked on this subject with old men who lived on the river 
bank at that time. They assure me it was always known to be as 
dishonest to pass counterfeit money as to steal, and men caught 
so doing were tried and sent to the penitentiary, as the law com- 
manded. 

"Lincoln," says Herndon, "was tender-hearted." Many of 
Lincoln's biographers dwell on this tender-hearted virtue. Don 
Piatt made a study of Lincoln's character ; says he was not tender- 
hearted. On the contrary, was callous and unfeeling. Of this, 
more anon. After stating that his friend Lincoln was tender- 
hearted, Herndon relates the following : 

"When about twenty-one years old, Lincoln hired for $8 
per month to work on a flatboat going to New Orleans with 
a load of grain and live stock. He and two other men under- 
took to drive a drove of hogs on the boat. The animals 
would not walk the plank leading from the land to the boat. 
They would run past the plank. Lincoln suggested that 
they should blind the hogs by sewing their eyes up. Being 
very strong, Lincoln caught the hogs one by one. held their 
heads tightly. A second man held the feet, while the third 
man, with needle and thread, sewed up the animals' eyelids 
' so they could not see. This device did not succeed. The 
hogs still refused to walk the plank. Then the strong Lin- 
coln again seized the hogs one by one, carried them on the 
boat, held their heads as in a vice while another man cut the 
stitches and restored vision to the animals." 

Was this tender-heartedness? Biographers give anecdotes 
like the above, apparently blind to their repulsive nature. The 
following is also related by Herndon, who was told the story by 
Mr. Lincoln, as he (Lincoln) said, "to illustrate a scientific fact." 

"It was Lincoln's duty, when a youth in his father's 
house, to put a sack of corn on the old mare, ride to the mill 
and grind it. Each man's animal was expected to work the 
mill machinery, and each man made his animal do the work. 



Chap. 9 Facts and Falsehoods. 49 

As the old Lincoln mare plodded round and round, Lincoln 
applied the lash, and with every lash, to hurry her into fast- 
er movements, Lincoln yelled out, "Get up, you old huzzy!" 

Even an old "huzzy" resents injustice. After the old mare 
had patiently borne many lashes, just as young Lincoln said "get 
up" for the fiftieth time, her patience gave out, she lifted her 
hind foot and landed it square between Lincoln's eyes, and he fell 
insensible and lay insensible all night. On coming to conscious- 
ness he finished the sentence cut short by the mare's heels, shout- 
ing "you old huzzy!" 

Is it insanity or pure mendacity to liken a man of this na- 
ture to the gentle and loving Nazarene? Who for an instant can 
imagine Jesus swinging a bottle of whiskey around his head, 
swearing to the rowdy crowd that he was the "big buck of the 
lick?" Or with a whip in his hand, lashing a faithful old slave 
at every round of her labor? Who can imagine Jesus sewing up 
hogs' eyes? What act of Lincoln's life betrays tender-hearted- 
ness? Was he tender-hearted when he made medicine contra- 
band of war? When he punished women caught with a bottle 
of quinine going South? The laws of war of all civilized people 
exempt surgeons' and hospital supplies from capture or intent of 
harm. Not only did Lincoln prevent medicine from going South, 
but when tlie whole South was devastated, when she was unable, 
properly, to feed and medicine the Union soldiers in her pris- 
ons, the Southerners paroled a Federal prisoner and sent him with 
a message to Lincoln, informing him of the South's condition 
in that respect, and telling him if he would send his own surgeons 
with medical suppHes they would be allowed to minister to the 
needs of the Union men in prison. Lincoln refused. Was this 
tender-hearted? When Greeley implored Lincoln not to inaugu- 
rate war on the South, and told him if he "rushed on carnage" 
he would clearly put himself in the wrong, was it tender-hearted 
to despise Greeley's prayer, rush on carnage, and for four years 
drench the whole Southland with human blood ? And when Lin- 
coln's legions were devastating the South, when with wanton cru- 
elty, at the point of the bayonet, Sherman drove 15,000 women 
and children of Atlanta, Georgia, out of their homes, out of the 
city, to wander in the woods, shelterless, foodlcss, and then laid 
the whole city in ashes, did Lincoln give one thought to the suf- 
ferings of those innocent women and children ? Did he once, dur- 
ing the four vears of the cruel war, utter or write one kind word 



50 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 9 

of the people on whom he had brought such unspeakable niiserv ? 
When some of the South's naval men were captured, and Lin- 
coln ordered that they should be hanged as pirates, and threw 
them in loathsome dungeon cells to await hanging, was that ten- 
der-hearted ? In the last war between Germany and France, how 
much niore huniaiiel\- did the conquering Germans treat the con- 
quered French? When Butler, sometimes called "the beast," in 
public speeches made in Northern cities, in newspapers, in legends, 
put up in big letters in his office, defamed and denounced the 
women of New Orleans as "she adders" and "she devils," and 
issued Order 28, which shocked all the civilized people of earth 
(except Russians and the Republican party), did Lincoln say one 
kind word of those so basely wronged women of New Orleans? 
In Butler's Book he boasts that Lincoln, and every other Repub- 
lican, approved his course in New Orleans (including his abuse 
and falsehoods about the women of that city,) and the infamous 
Order 28, which licensed his soldiery to insult and assault women 
at their pleasure. When, befouled all over by that foul order, But- 
ler went from Ncav Orleans to Washington City, not one of the 
foreign ministers called on Butler except the Russian. In his 
history of the LTnited States, Rhodes virtually charges Butler 
with telling falsehoods about a certain transaction between him 
and Grant, but when Butler basely defames and lies outright on 
every woman in New Orleans, Rhodes is ready enough to accept 
his lies as gospel truths, without any attempt at investigation. Such 
is the justice of Republican writers. The customs of civilized 
people forbid, in wars, the destruction of growing vines 
and crops, and the wanton burning of private homes. These cus- 
toms or laws were trampled rndcr foot by t1ie Rc]:>nblican party 
and its invading legions, and Lincoln exultantly congratulated 
his generals for the cruel work they did. The generals of the 
army were expressly ordered to destroy everything, to make the 
Southland a desert waste. While Sheridan was engaged in this 
remol^eless work. Grant telegraphed him, "Do all the damage 
vou can. Destroy the crops. We want the Shenandoah Valley 
a barren waste. We want Virginia clear and clean, so that a 
crow flying over it will have to carry his ration or starve to 
death." For one whole month Sheridan and his legions carried 
on this cruel work, and at last when the valley indeed was a 
desert waste, and thousands of women and children wandered 
in the woods and fields, homeless and hungry, Lincoln, the ten- 
der-hearted (God save the mark!") gleefully sent a telegram of 
congratulation to Sheridan. 



Chap. 9 Facts and pALSiiiiooDS." 51 

"I tender you and your brave army my thanks," said 
Lincoln, "and the thanks of the Nation, and my personal 
admiration for your month's operation in Shenandoah Val- 
ley, and especially for the splendid work." 

The "especially splendid work" that pleased Lincoln was _ 
the cruel work of burning- homes and turning women and chil- 
dren out into the devastated fields to starve and die. Lincoln 
took it upon himself, as all despots do, to speak for the Nation. 
If by the "Nation" is meant the great body of people, the large 
majority, Mr. Lincoln had no right to assume that the Northern 
Nation thanked Sheridan for his remorseless work. The Na- 
tion's sympathies at that time were with the South. On page 
47 of the Weik's and Herndon Story of a Great Life is the fol- 
lowing story : 

"In the noted fight between Abraham Lincoln's 'Step- 
brother and William Grigsby, John Johnson (the step- 
brother), William Grigsby and Abe himself played a stirring 
part. Taylor's brother was the second for Johnson ; Wil- 
liam White was Grigsby's second. They had a terrible fight. 
It soon became apparent that Grigsby was too much for Lin- 
coln's man, Johnson. It had been agreed that no one was to 
break the ring, but when Abe saw that his man was get- 
ting the worst of the fight he burst through the ring, caught 
Grigsby, threw him ofi some feet distant ; then up stood 
Lincoln, proud as Lucifer, swinging a bottle of liquor over 
his head and swearing aloud. '1 am the big buck of the lick!' 
he shouted. Tf anybody doubts it let them come on and 
whet his horns.' 

A general fight followed this challenge, at the end of which 
the field was cleared, the wounded retired amid the exultant 
shouts of the victors. In Lamon's "Life of Lincoln" the story is 
related thus : 

"The ground for the fight was one mile and a half from 
Gentryville. The bullies for twenty miles around attended ; 
the friends of both parties were present in force ; excitement 
ran high. When Abe's man, Johnson, was down and Bill 
Grigsby was on top, and all the spectators swearing and 
cheering, crowded up to the edge of the ring. Abe burst out 
of the crowd into the ring, seized Grigsby by the heels and 
threw him oflf ; then he swung a bottle of whisky over his • 
head and swore he was the big buck of the lick. Not one in 
the large crowd cared to encounter the long sweep of Abe's 



52 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap, to 

muscular arms, and so he remained master of the Hck. Not 
content, however, with thjs triumph, he vaunted himself in 
the most offensive manner, made hostile demonstrations to- 
ward Grigsby, declaring he could whip him then and there. 
Grigsby meekly replied he did not doubt it, but if Abe would 
make things even, and fight with pistols, he would willingly 
give him a fight. Abe replied : 'I am not going to fool away 
my life on a single shot.' " 

Is this a man American youths should be taught to reverence 
and emulate? Is this a picture to present for the admiration of 
our sons and daughters ? Yet of this man apotheosizing writers 
dare to say, "He as nearly resembles Christ as human nature 
can." 

• CHAPTER X. 

Mr. Lincoln Hates and Despises Christianity. He Goes to Church 
to Mock and Deride. "Piotis Lies.'" Holland's Strange Story. 
Other Republican Leaders Deride Christianity. The Four 
Ws. 

It is quite possible that many true and trustworthy men have 
been unbelievers in the Bible as the word of God. Many men 
have doubted and denied the divinity of Christ. Good men have 
claimed that Jesus was only a good man whose sublime moral 
teachings brought on Him the wrath of rulers. Mr. Lincoln's 
unbelief was more aggressive than the ordinary infidel's ; he dis- 
liked and despised Christianity as if it were an enemy to human- 
ity. He had no appreciation for the sublime truths taught by 
Jesus of Nazareth. Since the apotheosis ceremony, and especially 
since the contemporaries of Mr. Lincoln have nearly all passed 
away, it has become the custom of biographers to show up Mr. 
Lincoln as a very religious man. Mr. Holland, Noah Brooks and 
Miss Tarbell take the lead of all romancers on this subject. These 
writers throw facts to the wind, and, as Gen. Piatt puts it, fill 
their pages with "pious lies." Pious lies of this nature greatly 
annoyed Herndon and Lamon. Both Herndon and Lamon took 
time and labor trying to kill these pious lies, but after Herndon 's 
and Lamon's death pious lies became more numerous, bold and 
audacious than ever. In his suppressed "Life of Lincoln" Hern- 
don says: 

"Lincoln was a deep-grounded infidel. He disliked and 
despised churches. He never entered a church except to 
scoff and ridicule. On coming from a church he would 



Chap, io Facts and Fai.sehoods. 53 

mimic the preacher. Before running for any office he wrote 
a book against Christianity and the Bible. He showed it to 
some friends and read extracts. A man named Hill was 
greatly shocked and urged Lincoln not to publish it. Urged 
it would kill him politically. Hill got this book in his hands, 
opened the stove door, and it went up in flames and ashes. 
After that, Lincoln became more discreet, and when running . 
for office often used words and phrases to make it appear that 
he was a Christian. He never changed on this subject. He 
lived and died a deep-grounded infidel." 

Lamon, who was very intimate with Lincoln during the lat- 
ter's Presidency, as well as before, says he never changed. Nico- 
lay and Hay say the same. Yet since Lincoln's deification nearly 
every eulogist, lecturer and biographer of Lincoln assert that he 
was a sincere Christian. Many of Lincoln's relations and friends 
testify that he scofifed and derided religion and the Bible. 

On the subject of Mr. Lincoln's religious ideas, Lamon, who, 
during Lincoln's four years in the White House, was closer to 
him than any other man, wrote as follows in 1872: 

"No phase of Mr. Lincoln's character has been so per- 
sistently misrepresented as this of his religious belief. Not 
that the conclusive testimony of many of his intimate asso- 
ciates and relations relative to his frequent expressions on 
such subjects have ever been wanting, but his great promi- 
nence in history, his extremely general expressions of re- 
ligious faith called forth by the exigencies of his public life, 
or indulged in on occasion of private condolence have been 
distorted out of relation to their real significance or mean- 
ing to suit the opinion or tickle the fancy of individuals or 
parties." 

Mr. Lamon might have added to the above the fact that 
after the Republican leaders had performed the apotheosis cere- 
mony they deemed it best for the honor and maintenance of their 
party to bury out of sight Mr. Lincoln's real character, and to 
pose him before the world as the greatest and purest man born 
since Christ, and at the same time they decreed that from the 
hour of Mr. Lincoln's death, he was to be pictured as a sincere 
and true Christian. If Lamon knew that the Republicans thought 
it for the interest of their party that Mr. Lincoln should be repre- 
sented as a Christian, he dared to dififer from them and did his 
best to down falsehoods on this subject. Some biographers assert 
that "when a boy, Lincoln was of a grave and religious nature ; 



54 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap, io 

■:^ . m^ 

that he often retired from company and read the Bible, on his . 
knees, and otherwise manifested a reverential and religious turn 
of mind." Herndon says Lincoln was deficient in reverence for 
any thing or person. Lincoln's stepmother denied that he "ever 
went into a corner to ponder the sacred writings and wet the 
pages with his tears of penitence." 

Dennis Hanks is clear on this point. He denied that his 
cousin Abe was ever reverential, and denied that he liked sacred 
songs, and testifies that the songs Lincoln was fond of were of 
a very questionable character. 

"When Lincoln went to church," says Lamon and 
Hanks, "he went to mock and came away to mimic. When 
he went to New Salem he consorted with free thinkers and 
joined with them in deriding the gospel story of Jesus. He 
wrote a labored book on this subject, which his friend Hill 
put in the stove and burned up. Not until after Mr. Lin- 
coln's death were these facts denied." (See Lamon's "Life 
of Lincoln.") 

In the face of abundant and unimpeachable evidence proving 
that Lincoln was a deep-grounded infidel, unscrupulous biogra- 
phers continue to assert that he was a true Christian. Nicolay, 
who was Mr. Lincoln's private secretary during his Presidency, 
said on this subject: 

"Mr. Lincoln did not, to my knowledge, in any way 
change his religious views or beliefs from the time he left 
Springfield till his death." 

Herndon, the most faithful friend of Lincoln, was so out- 
raged at the falsehoods put forth about Lincoln's piety in the 
"pretended biographies" of his life that in 1870 he wrote a letter 
to Lamon, from which the following is taken: 

"In New Salem Mr. Lincoln lived with a class of men, 
moved with them, had his being with them. They were 
scoffers of religion, made loud protests against the follow- 
ers of Christianity. They declared that Jesus was an illegiti- 
mate child. On all occasions that offered they debated on 
the various forms of Christianity. They riddled old divines, 
and not infreq.uently made those very divines skeptics by 
their logic ; made them disbelievers as bad as themselves. 
In 1835 Lincoln wrote a book on infidelity and intended to 
have it published. The book was an attack on the idea that 
Jesus was Christ. Lincoln read the book to his friend Hill. 



Chap, io Facts and Falsehoods. 55 

Hill tried to persuade him not to publish it. Lincoln said it 
should be published. Hill, believing that if the book was 
published it would kill Lincoln forever as a politician, seized 
it and thrust it in the stove. It went up in smoke and ashes 
before Lincoln could get it out. When Mr. Lincoln was can- 
didate for the Legislature he was accused of being an infidel, 
and of having said that Jesus was an illegitimate child. He 
never denied it, never flinched from his views on religion. 
In 1854 he made me erase the name of God from a speech 
I was about to make. He did this to one of his friends in 
Washington City. In the year 1847 ^^- Lincoln ran for 
Congress against the Rev. Peter Cartright. He was accused 
of being an infidel ; he never denied it. He knew it could 
and would be proved on him. I know when he left Spring- 
field for Washington he had undergone no change in his 
opinion on religion. He held many of the Christian ideas in 
abhorrence. He held that God could not forgive sinners. 
The idea that Mr. Lincoln carried a Bible in his bosom or in 
his boots to draw on his opponent is ridiculous." 

Lincoln's cousin, Dennis Hanks, testifies : 

"At an early age Abe began to attend the preachings 
around about, but mostly at the Pigeon Creek Church, with 
a view to catching anything that might be ludicrous in the 
preaching, in the manner or matter, and making it a sub- 
ject of mimicry as soon as he could collect a crowd of idle 
boys and men to hear him. He frequently reproduced a ser- 
mon with nasal twang, rolling his eyes, and all sorts of droll 
aggravations, to the great delight of the wild fellows assem- 
bled. Sometimes he broke out with stories passably humor- 
ous and invariably vulgar." 

In Lamon's "Life of Lincoln," page 55, he says: 

"It is important that this question should be finally set- 
tled. The names of some of Mr. Lincoln's nearest friends 
are given below, followed by clear and decisive statements 
for which they are responsible, and all of them of high char- 
acter, men who had the best opportunities to form a correct 
opinion as to Mr. Lincoln's religious ideas." 

The following are samples of evidence on this subject. Mr. 
Jesse E. Fall reluctantly testifies: 

"Mr. Lincoln's friends were not a little surprised at 
finding in some biographies statements of his religious opin- 



56 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 10 

ions so utterly at variance with his known sentiments. Lin- 
coln held opinions utterly at variance with what are taught 
in the churches." 

William H. Herndon testifies : 

"Mr. Lincoln told me a thousand times that he did not 
believe that the Bible was any revelation from God. I assert 
this of my own knowledge ; others will confirm what I say." 
After Lincoln's death his wife wrote Lamon : 

"Mr. Lincoln had no hope and no faith in Christianity." 
Lamon testifies that "Lincoln never changed his opinions of 
the Christian religion, but he became discreet in talking of 
them." 

John Matthews testifies as follows: 
"I knew T^Ir. Lincoln as early as 1834; knew he was 
an infidel. He attacked the Bible and the New Testament; 
he talked infidelity, ridiculed both Bible and Testament. 
He often shocked me, he went so far. He often came into 
the clerk's ofiice, where I and other young men were writing. 
He brought a Bible with him, read a chapter and argued 
against it. He wrote a book on infidelity. I was his per- 
sonal and political friend. I never heard that he changed 
his views." 

On page 497 Lamon says : 

"While it is clear that Mr. Lincoln was at all times an 
infidel, it is also very clear that he was not at all times equally 
willing that everybody should know it. He never oflfered to 
purge or recant ; he was a wily politician and did not disdain 
to regulate his religious manifestations with reference to his 
political interest. He saw the immense and augmenting 
power of the churches, and in times past had felt it. The 
charge of infidelity had seriously injured him in several of 
his earlier political campaigns. Aspiring to lead religious 
communities, he saw he must not appear as an enemy within 
their gates. He saw no reason for changing his convic- 
tions, but he saw many good and cogent reasons for not 
making them public." 

In 1865 Mr. Holland wrote (to borrow Lamon's words) a 
"pretended Life of Lincoln," which shows lamentable disregard 
for truth and lamentable perversion of the moral sense. Having 
fully accepted the apotheosis decree regarding the dead Presi- 
dent, Mr. Holland very much desired to present to the public 



Chap, io Facts and Falsehoods. 57 

Mr. Lincoln as being a good and true Christian. To do this, in 
the face of strong evidence to the contrary, also in the face of 
the fact that hundreds of friends and relatives of Mr. Lincoln 
were still living, who could and would contradict misstatements, 
was the problem Mr. Holland had to contend with. After think- 
ing the matter over, Mr. Holland finally inserted in his Life of 
Lincoln the best story he could find to prove that Mr. Lincoln 
was a devout Christian. If this story be true, it would show Mr. 
Lincoln to have been more infamous than any open and avowed 
infidel the world knows of. We give the story as given in Mr. 
Holland's Life of Lincoln. The reader must judge for himself: 

Extracts from Holland's Life of Lincoln: 

"During one of Mr. Lincoln's political campaigns, a few 
•days before the election, he took a book containing a careful 
canvass of the city of Springfield, showing the candidates 
for whom each citizen had declared his intention to vote, 
and called Mr. Newton Bateman into his office to a seat 
by his side, carefully locking the door. 'Let us look over 
this book,' said Lincoln. T particularly wish to see how the 
ministers of the churches are going to vote.' Newton Bate- 
man was Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State 
of Illinois. Turning over the leaves one by one, Lincoln 
counted up the names ; then with a face full of sadness said : 
'Here are twenty-three ministers of different denominations, 
and all of them are against me, and here are a great many 
prominent members of the churches, a very large majority 
of whom are against me. I don't understand this. I am not 
a Christian. God knows I would be one.' 

"Drawing from his bosom a pocket Testament, his 
cheeks wet with tears, with a trembling voice he quoted it 
(the Testament) against his political opponents, especially 
against Douglas. He said the opinions adopted by him (Lin- 
coln) and his party were derived from the teachings of 
Christ, and asserted that Christ was God. The Testament 
he carried in his bosom he called 'The rock on which I 
stand.' Mr. Bateman, himself a Christian, said : 'Mr. Lin- 
coln, I had not supposed that you were accustomed to think 
so much on this subject ; certainly, your friends are ignorant 
of the sentiments you have expressed to me.' 'I know it,' 
he replied promptly. 'I know they are. I am obliged to 
appear different to them. I am willing you should know 
the truth.' " 



58 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap, io 

On this story Mr. Holland makes the following' curious 
comment : 

"Why Mr. Lincoln should say he was obliged to appear 
an infidel to others does not appear. It is more than prob- 
able that on leaving- Mr. Bateman, Lincoln met some of his 
old friends, and by a single bound from his tearful and sub- 
lime religious passion he told them some jest that filled his 
heart with mirth and awoke convulsions of laughter." 

"Tearful and sublime religious passion!'' What apotheosis 
twaddle is this! Of this Holland story Lamon says: 

"If Mr. Lincoln told Bateman that he did not under- 
stand why the Christian ministers and the other religious 
men refused to vote for him, he spoke falsely. Mr. Lin- 
coln well knew they opposed him because he was an open 
and avowed infidel ; one who blatantly strove to make con- 
verts of young Christian men." 

Both Bateman and Holland were professed Christians. If 
one or both together concocted this story for the purpose of lift- 
ing from Mr. Lincoln the stigma of infidelity, their moral sense 
must have been singularly perverted not to see that the story 
they told would cover Mr. Lincoln with blacker infamy than 
any unbelief in Christianity could possibly do. I can conceive 
of no greater baseness than the acts this Holland-Bateman story 
attributes to Mr. Lincoln. That man must be utterly conscience- 
less, not to say fiendishly malignant, who, himself convinced of 
the truth, the saving grace of Christianity, uses his power of 
logic, his power of sarcasm, his gift of eloquence, to turn Chris- 
tian men and youths against the faith he himself believed to be 
divine ! Unimpeachable evidence proves that Mr. Lincoln often 
seized occasions to — 

"Go into offices where young men were writing, with a 
Bible in his pocket, from which he would read chapters 
and verses and then denounce, deride and argue against 
the Bible and Christianity." 

It is proved that Mr. Lincoln, with others of like nature, 
would get together and scoff at the Christian faith, calling Jesus 
an impostor, a bastard child, and other opprobious epithets. Yet 
Mr. Holland would have his readers believe that all the time 
Lincoln was doing his best to bring contempt on Christianity he 
himself was a devoutly religious man. Some biographers ignore 
all evidence and serenely persist in the assertion that Mr. Lin- 



Chap, io - Facts and Falsehoods. 59 

coin was a fervent Christian and was "often seen on his knees 
before an open Bible, praying", while the tears streamed down 
his face." Biographers of this sort write under the full q-lare 
of the apotheosis ceremony, which blinds the vision of all faith- 
ful Republicans. 

In Mr. Holland's "pretended" Life of Lincoln is the fol- 
lowing : 

"Mr. Lincoln will always be remembered as eminently 
a Christian President. Conscience, not popular applause, not 
love of power, was the ruling motive of Lincoln's life. There 
was no taint to Lincoln's moral character. No stimulant 
ever entered his mouth ; no profanity ever came from his 
lips." 

"The people all drank," says Lamon ; "even the women drank 
whiskey toddies. The men took whiskey straight. Abe was al- 
ways for doing what the people did, right or wrong. Dennis 
Hanks, Lincoln's cousin, brought up with him. wrote to Hern- 
don, who was then writing Lincoln's Life, saying: 'Go the 
whole hog ; keep nothing back about Lincoln.' Hanks was op- 
posed to whitewashing." 

Hapgood, page 183, says : 

"All the clergy in Springfield voted against Lincoln." 

Other great Republican leaders in that cruel period not 
only had no faith in Christianity, but so hated it they never 
missed a chance to cast scorn and gibes at its founder. The 
Lancaster (Pa.) Intelligencer, published at the home of Thad- 
deus Stevens, said of him : 

"During all his lifetime Thaddeus Stevens has openly 
scoflfed at the Christian religion. Some years before the 
war, while trying a case in another part of the State, one 
of the lawyers quoted from the Bible. 'Oh,' retorted Stev- 
ens, 'the Bible is nothing but obsolete history of a barbarous 
people.' " 

In a speech made during the impeachment proceedings, 
Stevens referred to the Savior as that "individual Judas Iscariot 
betrayed." 

Carl Schurz was a reviler of Christianity. Schurz thought 
it fine wit to refer to Jesus of Nazareth as "that ideal gentle- 
man beyond the skies called by some people God." Some of 
those leaders not only cast aside religious restraints, but cut 
themselves loose from the ordinarv rules of decencv. Senator 



6o Facts and Falsehoods. Chap, ii 

McDonald boasted that he had planted his feet on the platform 
of the four Ws, "Wine, Whiskey, Women, War." 

Thaddeus Stevens was so pleased with this he boasted that 
his feet also stood on that platform. 

The cruel and utterly unjust war waged on the South by 
the Republican party in the 6o's seems to have obliterated every 
vestige of moral conscience, and all sense of right and wrong in 
some of the politicians of that party. Instance the following 
paragraph, cut from a Republican journal, the Globe-Democrat 
of St. Louis, October 17, 1897. The Globe-Democrat editor, dis- 
cussing which of two courses his party should pursue, com- 
placently remarks : 

"It matters not which we do, but we must all do the 
same. 'Which is our scoundrel f asked Thaddeus Stevens, 
in one of the controversies growing out of the reconstruc- 
tion policy, 'that we may all defend him.' " 

To defend their party's dead or living scoundrels is the high- 
est duty of Republicans. Thad Stevens' proposition was worthy 
of him and of the hellish policy he was discussing. 

CHAPTER XI. 

Lincoln's Singular Treatment of the Lady He Four Times Asked 
to Marry Him. His Curious Letter About That Lady. His 
Cruel Treatment of Miss Todd. His Home a Hell on Earth. 

Herndon and Lamon both say that Mr. Lincoln proposed 
marriage to three women. The first was Miss Rutledge, who 
was already engaged to a man whom she truly loved, who had 
gone East and remained so long her family, thinking he had 
forgotten his engagement, persuaded her to accept Lincoln's 
ofifer. Herndon, in his suppressed Life of Lincoln, says that 
Miss Rutledge could not love Lincoln, and before marriage pined 
and died in the belief that her first and only love had forgotten 
her. This was an error ; the lover had sufifered a long and tedious 
illness and returned to find the girl dead. The second woman 
Lincoln courted was a Miss Owens of Kentucky. Herndon de- 
scribes Miss Owens as a handsome, well-educated, bright young 
woman, just one year older than Lincoln, weighing 150 pounds, 
and having some fortune. Lincoln was twenty-eight. Miss Owens 
twenty-nine years old. The age and weight of this lady cut an 
important figure in this affair, and should be borne in mind by 
the reader. Lincoln himself tells the story of his courtship of 



Chap, i i Facts and Falsehoods. 6i 

Miss Owens in a letter to his friend, Mrs. Browning. Both La- 
mon and Herndon insert this letter verbatim in their story of 
Lincoln's life. Lamon introduces it by the following remarks: 
"If this letter could be withheld and the act decently 
reconciled to the conscience of the biographer professing to 
be honest and candid, this letter never should see the light in 
these pages. Its coarse exaggeration in describing the per- 
son the writer was willing to marry, its imputation of 'tooth- 
less, weather-beaten old age,' to a really young and hand- 
some lady, its utter lack of delicacy, its defective orthog- 
raphy, all this it would be more agreeable to suppress than 
to publish. But if we begin to mutilate a document which 
throws a broad light on one phase of ^Ir. Lincoln's char- 
acter, why may we not do the like as fast and as often as the 
temptation may arise?" 

Mutilations of this nature were precisely what Republican 
writers were expected to make in obedience to the decree of the 
apotheosizing Republican politicians. 

In Weik's and Herndon's "Story of a Great Life" this let- 
ter is published entire under the heading, "A Most Amusing 
Courtship." The letter itself Weik calls "a most ludicrous 
letter." 

Herndon makes no such comments in his suppressed Life 
of Lincoln. Should the son of any honorable man or woman 
write such a letter about the lady he had tried long and hard 
to get for a wife, had proposed to her four times, had never by 
her been deceived by word or act, had been told from the first 
that she could not marry him, that father and mother would 
weep tears of shame and sorrow over such a letter. They w^ould 
be unable to see in it anything "amusing," anything "ludicrous." 
Nicolay and Hay, who dedicated their ten volumes called 
the "Life of Lincoln" to Mr. Lincoln's son Robert, and who, of 
course, always held in mind the purpose of pleasing not only the 
son, but the Republican party, comment on the letter as follows : 
"This letter has been published and severely criticised 
as showing a lack of gentlemanly feeling, but those who 
take this view forget that Lincoln was writing to an inti- 
mate friend, that he mentioned no names, and that twenty- 
five years after, when a biographer wanted to publish the 
letter, Mr. Lincoln refused consent for the reason, as he 
stated, 'there is too much truth in it for print.' " 
Nicolay and Hay seek to excuse the writing of this letter 
on the score of youth. Lincoln was twenty-eight. If a man is 



62 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap, ii 

ever to possess gentlemanly feelino^, surely he is old enough at 
twenty-eight. But even this excuse is nullified by the fact that 
twenty-five years after writing the letter Lincoln exhibited no 
regret, no shame, no sense of the gross impropriety of writing 
such a letter. He refused to have the letter given to the public, 
not because he regretted having written it, but because "there 
ivas too much truth in it." Yet in that letter was as vile a slur 
as man can make at an honorable woman. Mark the sentence : 

"I knew she was called an 'old maid,' and I felt no doubt of 
t!ie truth of at least one-half of the appellation." 

Is not this intimating a doubt of the chastity of the woman 
he had four times asked to be his wife? Had the parties con- 
cerned lived in the South, had the lady been blessed with a big 
brother or a fiery father, had either the one or the other chanced 
to sec that letter, Mr. Lincoln would not have lived long enough 
to become the first President of the Republican party. The fol- 
lowing is a copy of the letter: 

"Springfield, April ist. 1838. 
"Mrs. O. H. Browning: 

"Dear Madam — Without apologizing for being egotistical, I 
shall make the history of so much of my life as has elapsed 
since I saw you, the subject of this letter. And I now discover 
that in order to give you a full and intelligible account of the 
things I have done and suflfered since I saw you, I shall have to 
relate some that happened before. It was in the autumn of 1836 
that a married lady of my acquaintance, a great friend of mine, 
being about to pay a visit to her father and relations residing in 
Kentucky, proposed to me that on her return she would bring a 
sister of her's with her if I would agree to become her brother- 
in-law with all convenient dispatch. I, of course, accepted the 
proposal, for you know I could not have done otherwise had I 
really been averse to it, but privately, between you and me, I 
was most confoundedly well pleased with the project. I had 
seen the said sister some three years ago, and thought her intelli- 
gent and agreeable, and saw no good objection to plodding life 
through hand in hand with her. Time passed, the lady took her 
journey, and in due time returned, sister in company, sure enough. 
This astonished me a little, for it appeared that her coming so 
readily showed she was a trifle too willing, but on reflection it 
occurred to me that she might have been prevailed on by her 
married sister to come without anything concerning me having 
been mentioned to her, and so I concluded that if no other ob- 
jection presented itself I would consent to waive this. All this 



Chap, ii Facts and Fai-sehoods. 63 

occurred to nie on hearing of her arrival in the neighborhood, 
lor be it remembered I had not seen her except about three years 
previous to the above mentioned. In a few days we had an inter- 
view and although I had seen her before, she did not look as my 
imagination had pictured her. i knew slie was over size, but 
nov^ she appeared a fair match for Falstaff. I knew she was 
called an old maid, and I felt no doubt of the truth of at least half 
of the appellation. But now, when I beheld her, I could not for 
my life avoid thinking of my mother, and this not from withered 
features, for her skin was too full of fat to permit of its con- 
tracting into wrinkles, but from want of teeth and weather- 
beaten appearance in general, and from a kind of notion running 
through my head that nothing could have commenced at the 
size of infancy and reached her present bulk at less than thirty- 
five or forty years ; in short, I was not at all pleased with her. 
But what could I do? I had told her sister I would take her 
for better or for worse, and I made a point of honor and con- 
science in all things to stick to my word, especially if others had 
been induced to act on it, which in this case I had no doubt they 
had done, for I was fully convinced that no other man on earth 
would have her, and hence the conclusion that they were bent 
on holding me to my bargain. Well, thought I, I have said it, 
and be the consequences what they may, it shall not be my fault 
if I fail to do it. At once I determined to consider her my wife, 
and this done, all my powers of discovery were put to work in 
search of perfections in her which might be fairly set off against 
her defects. I tried to imagine her handsome, which but for her 
corpulence was actually true. Exclusive of this, no woman I 
have ever seen had a finer face. I also tried to convince myself 
that the mind was much more to be valued than the person, and 
in this she was not inferior, as I could discover, to any with 
whom I had been acquainted. Shortly after this, without com- 
ing to any understanding with her, I set out for Vandalia, where 
you first saw me. During my stay there I had letters from her 
which did not change my opinion either of her intellect or in- 
tention, but, on the contrary, confirmed it in both. All this while, 
though I was fixed firm as the surge-repelling rock in my reso- 
lution, I found I was continually repenting the rashness which 
had led me to make it. Through life I have been in no bondage, 
either real or imaginary, from the thralldom of which I so much 
desired to be free. After my return home I saw nothing in her 
to make me change my opinion of her in any respect. I now 
spent my time in planning how I might get along through life 



64 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap, ii 

after my contemplated change of circumstances should have 
taken place,, and how I might procrastinate the evil for a time, 
which I really dreaded as much, perhaps more, than the Irish- 
man does the halter. After all my suffering on this deeply inter- 
esting subject, here I am wholly, unexpectedly, completely out of 
the scrape, and now I want to know if you can guess how I got 
out of it. Clear, in every sense of the term ; no violation of word, 
honor or conscience. I don't believe you can guess, so I may as 
well tell you at once. As the lawyer says, it was done in the 
manner following, to-wit: After I had delayed the matter as 
long as I thought I could in honor do (which, by the way, had 
brought me around to the last of fall), I concluded I might as 
well bring it to a consummation without further delay, and so 
I mustered up my resolution and made the proposal to her direct, 
but, shocking to relate, she said 'No.' At first I thought she did 
it through an affectation of modesty, which I thought but ill 
became her, under the peculiar circumstances of her case, but 
on my renewal of the charge I found she repeated it with greater 
firmness than ever. I tried again and again, but with the same 
success, or, rather, the same want of success. I finally was forced 
to give it up, at which I very unexpectedly found myself morti- 
fied almost beyond endurance. I was mortified, it seemed to me, 
in a hundred different ways. My vanity was deeply wounded 
by the reflection that I had been too stupid to discover her inten- 
tions, and at the same time never doubting that I understood them 
perfectly, and that she whom I had taught myself to believe no- 
body else would have, had actually rejected me, with all my 
fancied greatness. And to cap the whole thing, I had then for 
the first time begun to suspect that I was jeally a little in love 
with her. But let it all go; I'll try and outlive it. Others have 
been made fools of by the girls, but this can never with truth' 
be said of me. I most emphatically in this instance made a fool of 
myself. I have now come to the conclusion of never again to 
think of marrying, and for this reason I can never be satisfied 
with any one who would be blockheaded enough to have me. 
Your sincere friend, A. Lincoln." 

If this appears rough treatment of the lady who refused to 
marry Mr. Lincoln, what will be thor[',ht of his treatment of 
the lady who consented to marry him? After Miss Owens, Lin- 
coln courted Miss Todd, who is described by Herndon and La- 
mon as a handsome, well-educated young lady of a fine old Ken- 
tucky family. Like Miss Owens, Miss Todd was in Springfield 
on a visit to a married sister. The day was set for the marriage, 



CiiAP. II Facts and Falsehoods. 65 

or rather the night of January ist, 1841. The guests were in- 
vited and duly arrived ; the feast was spread, the bride was ar- 
rayed in all her beauty and finery. They waited the coming of 
the bridegroom. But he came not. A strange uneasiness arose, 
runners were sent out in search, but they found him not. When 
all hope was over the disappointed, chagrined, unhappy bride re- 
tired to her chamber to hide her grief and shame. The guests 
departed, amazed and astounded. Next day the bride returned 
to her Kentucky home. When morning came Lincoln's friends 
found him and demanded an explanation of his extraordinary 
conduct. 

"I found," replied Lincoln, "that I do not love Miss 
Todd enough to make her my wife." 

When his friends made Lincoln understand how his con- 
duct would be viewed he was greatly troubled. "Popularity to 
him was the greatest good in life." To lose popularity would 
indeed be a great loss to Lincoln. He was an ambitious poli- 
tician. Lincoln's friends urged him to leave town until the ex- 
citement blew over. He went to Speed's paternal home, near 
Louisville, Ky., and there remained three weeks, the guest of 
Speed's father. Modern biographers excuse Lincoln on the 
ground of insanity. Herndon, in his suppressed Life of Lincoln, 
says "Lincoln was not insane, but much depressed;" Speed's 
brother, who saw Lincoln while at his father's house, says he 
was not insane. Joshua Speed, Lincoln's close friend, says "Lin- 
coln was not insane, but was depressed, and almost contemplated 
suicide." The apotheosizing biographers either make no men- 
tion of the occurrence or declare he was insane. Hapgood boldly 
says: 

"When Lincoln was found next day he was as crazy as a 
loon." On whose authority Hapgood bases this assertion does 
not appear. Apotheosizing writers care very little for authority. 
No writer during Lamon's or Herndon's life dared assail the 
veracity of either of these men. Miss Tarbell, who wrote her 
so-called Life of Lincoln long after his two true friends, Hern- 
don and Lamon, had passed away, attacked Herndon's veracity, 
and makes a lame attempt to deny the whole story. At the end 
of a year Miss Todd again visited her sister in Springfield, 111. 
Mr. Lincoln, wishing to atone, again proposed marriage, and was 
again accepted. Herndon says that the little boy of the house, 
on seeing Mr. Lincoln dressing for his marriage, asked where he 
was going. 

"To hell," was Mr. Lincoln's gloomy reply. 



66 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap, ii 

In his suppressed Life of Lincoln, Herndon says: 

"It literally z(.'as a hell to which Mr. Lincoln went. 
Miss Todd lost all love for Mr. Lincoln that night he inflicted 
upon her so grievous a wrong. She married for revenge, 
and got it in good weight. To me it has always seemed 
plain that Mr. Lincoln married Miss Todd to save his honor. 
He sacrificed his domestic peace ; he chose honor, and with 
it years of torture, sacrificial pangs and the loss forever of 
a happy home. As to Miss Todd, until that fatal night, Jan- 
uary 1st, 1 84 1, she may have loved Lincoln, but his action 
on that night forfeited her affection. He had crushed her 
proud spirit. She felt degraded in the eyes of the world. 
Love fled at the approach of revenge. She led her husband 
a wild dance. She unchained the bitterness of a disappointed 
and outraged nature. Mary Todd had kept back all the un- 
attractive traits of her character. Lincoln's married life is a 
curious history ; facts long chained down are slowly coming 
to the surface. It often happened that Lincoln would get 
up in the dead of night, and go out of his own house to es- 
cape his wife. He often went to his law office to sleep on 
the old horsehair sofa there. Mrs. Lincoln's temper was 
something fearful." 

Illustrating Mrs. Lincoln's violent temper, in the "True 
Story of a Great Life" is the following story: A girl in the em- 
ploy of Mrs. Lincoln was discharged. The girl's uncle called 
on Mrs. Lincoln to learn the cause of such treatment. Mrs. Lin- 
coln met the man at the door and was so infuriated and violent 
the man was glad to get safely away. But he went at once to 
Lincoln's office to exact from him proper satisfaction. Lincoln 
listened to the uncle's story, then sadly said : 

"My friend, I regret to hear this, but in all candor I 
ask you, can't you endure for a few moments what I have 
had as my daily portion for the last fifteen years?" 

The uncle was disarmed. Lincoln's look of distress so excited 
his sympathy he warmly shook his hand, and from that day be- 
came Lincoln's good friend. See True Story of a Great Life, 
vol. 3, p. 430. 

Nicolay and Hay, of Lincoln's marriage to Miss Todd, say: 
"This episode shows the almost abnormal development 
of conscience in Mr. Lincoln, who was ready to enter a mar- 
riage which he dreaded because he thought he had given the 
lady reason to think he had intended marriage. We can but 



Chap. 12 Facts and Falsehoods. 67 

wonder at the nobleness of the character to which it was 

possible." 

Holland and other apotheosizing writers make no denial of 
the story. They simply tell of Lincoln's marriag-e in 1842. Hap- 
good calls Lincoln's marriage to Miss Todd "a mysterious mar- 
riage." There was no mystery ; the facts are plain enough. But 
if Lincoln" did not wish to marry Miss Todd, why did he not 
break it off in a less painful way? 

CHAPTER Xn. 

Mr. Lincoln's Passion for Indecent Stories. Mr. Holland on This 
Habit. Lincoln "the Foulest in Stories of Any Other Man." 
Gov. Andrezvs' Disgust. Lincoln Writes Indecent Things. 
He Dislikes Ladies* Society. 

Mr. Lincoln's passion for indecent stories would be passed 
over in silence were it not for the fact that Republican writers 
and politicians persist in proclaiming to the youth of this country 
that Mr. Lincoln is the man whose character they should emu- 
late and revere ; that he was the purest and the noblest man that 
ever lived ; that he was a "servant and follower of Christ," "a 
pure Christian." Only a short while ago a speaker said : 

"Abraham Lincoln was the first of all men who have 
walked the earth since the Nazarene." 

Another speaker recently told his hearers that — 
"They should give up all hope of heaven if Lincoln was 
excluded." Are these men insincere or ignorant? If sincere, 
they commit a great wrong by indorsing, as they do, a man the 
youth of this countr}- should not be taught to revere or emu- 
late. 

In Charles L. C. Minor's "Real Lincoln," published in 1901. 
is this : 

"A mistaken estimate of Abraham Lincoln has been 
spread far and wide. Even in the South an editorial in a 
very respectable religious paper lately said as follows : 'Our 
country has more than once been singularh^ fortunate in the 
moral character and admirable personality of its popular 
heroes. Washington, Lincoln and Lee have been the type 
of characters that it is safe to hold up to the admiration of 
their own age and to the imitation of succeeding genera- 
tions.' " 



68 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 12 

If this Southern editor had known the real character of Lin- 
coln he would have put his pen and paper in the fire before giving 
such bad advice to Southern boys. In 1866 Mr. Holland wrote 
his Life of Lincoln under the full glare of the apotheosis cere- 
mony. Although presenting Mr. Lincoln to the public, closely 
resembling the effigy the apotheosizers had made, still Mr. Hol- 
land did not go so far as to deny all the facts he would have 
been glad to conceal. The whole country was full of Mr. Lin- 
coln's "indecent yarns," which many persons then living had 
heard him retail. Mr. Holland did not dare to deny the facts, 
or to remain silent on the subject. He says : 

"It is useless for Mr. Lincoln's biographers to ignore 
this habit. The whole West, if not the whole country, is full 
of these stories^ and there is no doubt at all that he indulged 
in them. Men who knew Mr. Lincoln throughout all his 
professional and political life have said that 'he was the foul- 
est in his jests and stories of any man in the country,' " 

F. B. Carpenter, the artist who painted Lincoln's portrait, did 
not venture to deny the obscene stories, but was vexed at Holland 
for mentioning them. 

"I regret," wrote the amiable artist, desiring to main- 
tain the theory of Lincoln's deification, "that Dr. Holland has 
thought it worth while to notice the stories going about of 

Mr. Lincoln's ha1:)itual indulgence in telling objectionable 
stories." < 

Holland attempts to excuse Mr. Lincoln's passion for vul- 
gar yarns on the ground that "Mr. Lincoln's experience and con- 
nection with lawyers necessarily induced familiarity with the 
foulest phases of human life." Lawyers will be no little aston- 
ished to hear that the legal profession "necessarily befouls" the 
minds of its practitioners. Coming of a family of lawyers, and 
from a long and wide acquaintance with members of the bar, the 
present writer denies Mr. Holland's assertion that the "prac- 
tice of law and association with lawyers have a tendency to lead 
the mind to obscenity." Lawyers will compare favorably with 
the medical profession ; indeed, with any of the learned profes- 
sions, hardly excepting the clerical. Herndon says : 

"Lincoln could never realize the impropriety of telling 
vulgar yarns in the presence of a minister of the gospel." 
Will a gentleman tell vulgar yarns in anybody's presence?* 
Rhodes, page 471, relates the following: ' . 



Chap. 12 Facts and Falsehoods. 69 

"A leading member of one of the greatest religious 

org-anizations (June 20th, 1864), which had been passing 
resolutions and sending deputations to the White House, 
and was entrusted with the speech-making part of the busi- 
ness, publicly described the demeanor of Mr. Lincoln on 
that occasion as follows: 'Lincoln is a buffoon, a gawk; 
he is disgracefully unfit for the high office to which he again 
aspires. I departed from the East Room with a sickening 
sensation of the helplessness of our cause.' " 

Lamon says : 

"Mr. Lincoln's habit of relating vulgar yarns (not one 
of which will bear printing) was restrained by no presence 
and no occasion." 

General Don Piatt writes of having heard Lincoln relate 
stories "not one of which could appear in print." 

In Vol. 4, p. 518, of Rhodes' History of the United States, 
is this: 

"Governor Andrew of Massachusetts, in an interview 
with President Lincoln on a matter he had at heart, was put 
off by Lincoln telling a smutty story, turning the Govern- 
or's subject into ridicule. Governor Andrew was filled 
with disgust." 

Herndon says : 

"Lincoln's highest delight was to get a rowdy crowd in 
groceries (dram-shops) or on street corners and retail vul- 
gar yarns too coarse to put in print." 

On page 63 of Lamon's Life of Lincoln we have this: 
"Abe wrote many satires which are only remembered 
in fragments, but if we had them in full they were too inde- 
cent for publication ; such, at least, is the character of a 
piece touching a church trial wherein Brother Harper and 
Sister Gordon were parties seeking judgment. It was very 
coarse, but it served to raise a laugh in the groceries at the 
expense of the church." 

Do the Christian parents of this country want their boys 
taught to imitate a man who sought to "raise laughter in dram- 
shops at the expense of the churches?" 

Mr. A. Y. Ellis, friend of Mr. Lincoln, says: 

"On electioneering trips Mr. Lincoln told stories 
which drew the boys after him. I remember them, but mod- 
esty forbids -me to repeat them." 



70 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 12 

Dennis Hanks, Lincoln's cousin, said: 

"Abe had a great passion for viilg-ar yarns." 
On p. 478, Lamon's Life of Lincoln, is this: 

"Telling and hearing ridiculous stories was one of Lin- 
coln's ruling passions. He would go a long way out of his 
road to tell a grave, sedate man a broad story or propound 
to him a conundrum not remarkable for delicacy. If he 
happened to hear of a man who was known to have some- 
thing 'fresh' in this line, he would hunt him up and swap 
jokes with him. This was so in Indiana, in New Salem, in 
the Black Hawk war, on the circuit, on the stump, every- 
where. When court adjourned from village to village, the 
taverns, the groceries left behind, were filled with the sorry 
echoes of 'Abe's Best.' Men carried home with them select 
budgets of his stories, to be related to itching ears as 'Old 
Abe's Last' 

"His humor was not of a delicate quality ; it was chiefly 
exercised in telling and hearing stories of the grossest sort. 
He was restrained by no presence and no occasion. He 
seemed to make boon companions of the <!:oarsest men, of 
low, vulgar creatures ; he enjoyed them, extracted from them 
whatever service they were capable of, then discarded and 
forgot them ; he used them as tools to feed his desires. If 
one of them, presuming on the past, followed him to Wash- 
ington, Mr. Lincoln would take him to his private office, 
lock the door, revel in reminiscences, new stories and old, 
an entire evening, and then dismiss him." 

I know of no more repulsive characteristics than the above 
portrays. I know of nothing more contemptible than for a man 
to go out of his way to "find fresh indecency ;" out of his way 
to hunt up and "swap indecency" with some other obscene crea- 
ture. That a man occupying the highest office in America, a 
husband and father, should find his chief delight in hearing and 
relating to "itching ears " vulgar stories ; that he should take his 
indecent visitors into a private room of the White House, lock 
the door and "revel an entire evening in obscene reminiscences 
of old and new stories," is something for all America to be 
ashamed of. Yet this foul-minded and foul-mouthed man is 
held up by Republicans as a model for American boys to revere 
and emulate. While writing Lincoln's Life, Herndon inquired 



Chap. 12 Facts and Falsehoods.' 71 

of his cousin, Dennis Hanks, what songs Lincohi most Hked 
when he was a young man. Dennis rephed : 

"Rehgious songs did not suit him at all. One of his 
favorite songs began : 

"'Hail Columbia, happy land! 

If you ain't drunk I'll be damned.' " 

This song, Mr. Hanks modestly said, "should only bo 
warbled in the fields." Another favorite of Abe's began: 

"There was a Romish lady brought up in Popery." 

"Other little songs I won't say anything about; they 
would not look well in print," said Mr. Hanks. 

"Abe," says Lamon, "was much in demand in hog-kill- 
ing time ; he butchered hogs for the neighbors around for 
thirty-one cents a day. There was only one man in the 
neighborhood whom Abe strongly disliked, and that was 
Joshua Crawford. Crawford made him pay for a book he 
had lent him which Abe had left where it was rained on and 
ruined. As Abe had no money, Crawford made him pull 
fodder for three days. This so angered Lincoln he deter- 
mined on revenge. He wrote satires on Crawford's nose, 
which was deformed, being very big and bumpy at the end. 
This caused Crawford much mortification, grief and anguish 
of spirit. The Chronicles were written by Lincoln to bring 
the churches into ridicule. They were gotten up in Scrip- 
tural style. Sister Gordon and Brother Harper, and Craw- 
ford's nose, were served up fresh and gross for the amuse- 
ment of the grocery boys. A well-to-do man named Grigsby 
failed to invite Lincoln to the feast and dance he gave in 
honor of the marriage of his two sons. This made Abe very 
mad ; in revenge he wrote the 'Chronicle of Reuben.' It 
was very venomous in spirit. Mrs. Crawford attempted to 
repeat the verses in these Chronicles to Mr. Herndon, but 
soon stopped, turned red and said she could not ; they were 
too indecent. These verses were written out by Mrs. Craw- 
ford's son-in-law and sent to Herndon, but though much 
curtailed by Mrs. Crawford's modesty, it is still impossible 
to transcribe them." 

In "The Story of a Great Life," p. 534, Mr. Weik makes 
quite an original comment on Mr. Lincoln's passion for obscenity. 



72 • Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 12 

"Almost any man," says Weik, "that will tell a vulgar 
story has, in a degree, a vulgar mind. It was not so with 
Mr. Lincoln." 

Can a spring which continually pours out muddy water be 
itself clear? Can a mind which continually pours out foulness 
not itself be foul? Mr. Weik adds to his comment the sage 
reflection that Mr. Lincoln had no ability to discern or note the 
difference between the vulgar and the refined. The whiskey 
drinker knows the difference between whiskey and water, but 
he craves whiskey and turns from water as insipid. 

Mr. Lincoln's passion for indecent stories never left him ; 
it was born with him, it never weakened, never died until it 
died with him that fatal night in Ford's Theater. In his boy- 
hood it was eager, curious ; in his manhood bold, audacious. It 
made itself a factor to further his political desires ; it pandered 
to the low, animal instincts of the rowdy class ; it fed itself fat 
on their applause. It traveled with him on his electioneering 
trips over the state, drawing crowds of the base-minded around 
him, whose hilarity at its antics delighted Lincoln's heart. 
Wherever he went a trail of foulness was left in his wake ; the 
village taverns, the village groceries were full of the foul odors 
from his soul. He carried it with him to Washington City ; it 
entered the White House, it abode with him there for four years. 
It was his pet; he kept it warm in his bosom, he fondled it, he 
cuddled it. He carried it with him to Cabinet meetings ; he let 
it loose on the Cabinet Ministers, who roared with laughter at 
its caperings (Chase excepted). A few days after the dreadful 
battle of Antietam, while all America, North and South, were 
mourning over the slaughtered braves, with it in his bosom, and 
Lamon by his side. President Lincoln drove out to survey the 
fatal field. Not even there in the presence of the sad-hearted 
commanding General, there amid so many fresh-made graves, 
did it remain quiescent. Bold, shameless, grotesquely gleesome, 
out it jumped from, its warm nest in Lincoln's bosom, and to 
the horror of the Commanding General, in whose ears still rever- 
berated the cannon's roar, still sounded the groans and moans 
of the wounded, the dying, it called for comic songs, and Lamon, 
who never failed to dance to Lincoln's piping, sang the songs. 

And this is the man American youths are continually told 
they should revere and emulate! The story of the comic sing- 
ing on Antietam's battle-field will be given in the next chapter. 



Chap. 13 Facts and Falsehoods. 73 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Lincoln and Lamon Visit Antietani Battlefield. Lincoln Calls for 
a Comic Song. Lamon Sings Picayune Butler. General Mc- 
Clcllan Shocked. The Perkins Letter. Mr. Lincoln's Reply. 

In 1862 a damaging story appeared in the newspapers which 
caused much talk. From that time until Lincoln's death, in 
1865, newspapers continued to relate the story, and to challenge 
denial, but denial was never made until long after Mr. Lincoln's 
death. The Sussex (N. J.) Statesman told the story in 1862, 
as follows : 

"Lincoln on the Battlefield." 

"We see that many papers are referring to the fact 
that Lincoln ordered a comic song to be sung upon the bat- 
tlefield. We have known the facts of the transaction for 
some time, but have refrained from speaking about them. 
As the newspapers are stating some of the facts, we will 
give the whole. Soon after one of the most desperate and 
sanguinary battles, Mr. Lincoln visited the Commanding 
General, who, with his staff, took him over the field, and 
explained to him the plan of the battle, and the particular 
places where the battle was most fierce. At one point the 
Commanding General said : 'Here on this side of the road 
five hundred of our brave fellows were killed, and just on 
the other side of the road four hundred and fifty more were 
killed, and right on the other side of that wall five hundred 
rebels were destroyed. We have buried them where they 
fell.' 'I declare,' said the President, 'this is getting gloomy ; 
let us drive away.' After driving a few rods the President 
said: *J^ck,' speaking to his companion, 'can't you give us 
something to cheer us up? Give us a song, a lively one.' 
Whereupon, Jack struck up, as loud as he could bawl, a 
comic negro song, which he continued to sing while thev 
were riding off from the battle ground, and until they ap- 
proached a regiment drawn up, when the Commanding Gen- 
eral said : 'Would it not be well for your friend to cease 
his song till we pass this regiment? The poor fellows have 
lost more than half their number. Thev are feeling very 
badly, and I should be afraid of the effect it would have 
on them.' The President asked his friend to stop singing 
until they passed the regiment. 



74 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 13 

"When this story was told to us we said : 'It is incred- 
ible, it is impossible, that any man could act so over the 
fresh-made graves of the heroic dead.' But the story is 
told on such authority we know it to be true. We tell the 
story now that the people may have some idea of the man 
elected to be President of the United States." 

The Statesman's story is rather guarded. It does not give 
the name of the battlefield, of the Commanding General, or of 
the personal friend with Mr. Lincoln, who sang the comic song. 
Other papers made no reservation. Lamon was the friend who 
sang the song. General McClellan was the Commanding officer. 
Antietam the battlefield. Lamon wrote "The Life of Lincoln" 
in 1872, but makes no reference to this story. In Lamon's pa- 
pers, published by his daughter, 1895, the story is told thus: 

"The story," said Lamon, "was blown about into a re- 
volting and deplorable scandal on Mr. Lincoln, who was 
painted as the prime mover in a scene of fiendish levity 
more atrocious than the world has ever witnessed." 

Lamon further states that he and Mr. Lincoln both smarted 
under the defamation ; that he (Lamon) was anxious to silence 
it by denial, but Lincoln would not permit him to make a denial. 

Lincoln said to Lamon : 

"Let the thing alone. In politics every man must skin 
his own skunk. These fellows are welcome to the hide of 
this one. Its body has already given out its unsavory odor." 

General Piatt refers to the comic song story in his book, 
published in 1887, as if it were true, and believed to be true by 
the public. In 1895, after all the parties concerned were dead, 
Lamon's daughter, Dorothy, published a book she called "La- 
mon's Recollections of Lincoln," in which is given the following 
account, taken from Mr. Lamon's papers : 

"The newspapers," said Lamon, "and the stump speak- 
ers went on stufiing the ears of men with reports of what 
was known as the 'Antietam Song-Singing' until the fall 
of 1864, when I showed to Mr. Lincoln a letter, of which 
the following is a copy. It is a fair example of hundreds 
of letters received about that time. The Antietam incident 
was then being discussed with increased virulence." 

The following is Mr. Perkins' letter to Mr. Lamon: 



Chap. 13 Facts and Falsehoods. 75 

"Philadelphia, September 10. 
"Ward H. Lamon : 

"Dear Sir — Enclosed is an extract from the New York 
World of September 9th, 1864, entitled, 'One of Mr. Lin- 
coln's Jokes.' 

" 'A few days after the battle of Antietam, while Presi- 
dent Lincoln was driving over the field in an ambulance, 
accompanied by Marshal Lamon, General McClellan and an- 
other officer, heavy details of men were engaged in the 
task of burying the dead. The ambulance had just reached 
the neighborhood of the old stone bridge, where the dead 
were piled highest, when Mr. Lincoln, suddenly slapping 
Marshal Lamon on the knee, exclaimed : 'Come, Lamon ! 
Give us that song about Picayune Butler ; McClellan has 
never heard it' 'Not now, if you please,' said McClellan, 
with a shudder. 'I would prefer hearing it at some other 
place and time.' 

"This story had been repeated in the New York World 
almost daily for the last three months. Lentil now it would 
have been useless to demand the authority. Now we have 
Marshal Lamon, General McClellan and another officer. 
The story is damaging to Mr. Lincoln, and is believed by 
many, as is very evident from the doggerel verses accom- 
panying the story, of which the following is a sample : 
" 'Abe may crack his jolly jokes 
Over bloody fields of battle, 
While yet the ebbing life tide smokes 

From men who die like butchered cattle. 
And even before the guns grow cold 
To pimps and pets Abe cracks his jokes.' 
"I wish to ask you, sir, in behalf of others, as. well as 
mvself, whether any such occurrence took place? If it did 
not take place, please state who that other officer was, if 
there was anv such in the ambulance in which President 
Lincoln was driving over the field of Antietam. while de- 
tails of men were engaged in the task of burying the dead. 
You will confer a great favor by an immediate reply. 
"Most respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"A. J. Perkins." 
Lamon states that he submitted the Perkins letter to Mr. 
Lincoln, and with it his own draft of a reply to Perkins. Lin- 
coln read them both carefully, shook his head, and said: 



yd Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 13 

"No, Lamon ; your reply won't do. Let me try my hand 
at it." 

"Then." continues Lamon, "Mr. Lincoln sat down and i 
wrote slowly, and with great deliberation and care, a letter, 
to be copied by me and sent to Mr. Perkins as my letter." 

If the comic song story was false, why was it not tersely 
and shortly denied? Why did the Perkins letter require Mr. 
Lincoln to write that denial with "great deliberation, slowly and 
carefully?" Mr. Lamon's daughter gives the whole of Mr. Lin- 
coln's letter to Mr. Perkins, -which he wrote in the name of 
Lamon. 

"The President," wrote Mr. Lincoln, "has known me 
intimately for nearly twenty years, and has often heard me 
singing little ditties." 

Was this relevant? Was this even akin to denial? The 
letter then proceeds to give a minute account of their departure 
from Washington City, of meeting General McClellan coming 
from his headquarters near the battle ground, of reviewing the 
troops at Bolivar Heights, in company with McClellan, in the 
afternoon, of going with General Sumner next morning and re- 
viewing the troops at Loudon Heights, of reviewing the troops 
at Maryland Heights, then at noon starting off to General Mc- 
Clellan's headquarters, of getting there only a little time before 
night, of next morning starting off to review Antietam battle- 
field. Was this minute detail of Lincoln and Lamon's move- 
ments during the two days previous to the comic song episode 
in the least necessary ? Was it in the least pertinent to a denial ? 
If Mr. Lincoln had an honest denial to make, would he not have 
made it in a dozen or a half dozen words? "The story is false" 
(if it were false), would naturally have been the way to deny it. 
But even after arriving at Antietam, Lincoln made no direct de- 
nial. He continued to whip the devil around the stump. 

After getting through with General Burnsides' corps," 
wrote President Lincoln for Mr. Lamon, "at the suggestion 
of General McClellan, he and the President left their horses 
to be led and went into an ambulance or ambulances to go 
to General Fitz Porter's corps. 1 am not certain whether 
the President and General McClellan were in the same am- 
bulance or in different ones, but myself (Lamon) and some 
others were in the same with the President. On the way. in 
no part of the battle ground, and on whose suggestion I do 



Chap. 13 Facts and Falsehoods. yy 

not remember, the President asked me to sing the Httle sad 
song he had often heard me sing. After it was over some 
one of the party, I do not think it was the President, asked 
me to sing something else. I sang two or three Httle comic 
songs, of which Picayune Butler was one." 

Is this a denial? Can any one believe that General AlcClel- 
lan or the officer with him in the Lincoln ambulance called for 
a comic song? Lamon had so long been in the habit of catering 
to the President's humor for comic songs, neither he nor Lincoln 
could realize how such songs would affect others, especially how 
they would harrow the feelings of army officers just through 
the awful ordeal of a bloody battle. Even after this attempted 
denial Mr. Lincoln continued his minute descriptions of what 
he and Lamon did. 

"The battle ground was passed," wrote Lincoln, "the 
most noted parts examined." 

Then Mr. Lincoln gives a detailed account of what he, 
Lamon and General McClellan did the day after the comic song- 
singing incident. Was this to confuse the reader's mind, to di- 
vert attention from the main point, which was denial of comic 
song-singing? The conclusion of Mr. Lincoln's letter is pe- 
culiar. 

"Neither McClellan nor any one else," he wrote, "made 
any objections to the singing. The place was not on the 
battlefield, the time was sixteen days after the battle. No 
dead bodies were seen, nor even a grave that had not been 
rained on since it had been made." 

Was it likely that any army officer would run the risk of 
offending the President, who had the power of promoting or 
pulling down officers? Yet, though slowly and carefully as Mr. 
Lincoln had written the letter intended to be sent to Mr. Per- 
kins, it was never sent. Why ? Was it because Lincoln, shrewd 
lawyer that he was, saw his so-called denial would not hold 
water ? 

Lamon says Mr. Lincoln, not satisfied with his own attempt 
at denial, gave the letter to him to lay away for future use, but 
forbade any denial at that time. Was this because the two offi- 
cers who were in the ambulance with Lincoln were still living 
and could have contradicted misstatements? No denial was 
made during the lifetime of any of the parties concerned. No 
denial was made until 1895, when Miss Dorothy Lamon pub- 



yS Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 14 

lished the story from her deceased father's papers. After having 
related the comic song story, Lamon's next page descants on Mr. 
Lincoln's extreme fondness for negro comic songs, "Picayune 
Butler" being his prime favorite. "The Blue-Tailed Fly" was 
a great favorite. "A comic song," says Mr. Lamon, "sung at a 
theater, always restored Mr. Lincoln to cheerful humor." To 
sing these songs seems to have been part of Lamon's duty to 
the President. Had Lincoln been a King, and had he and La- 
mon lived in ancient times, Lamon would have held the position 
of the King's Jester. 



. CHAPTER XIV. 

The True and the False. Apotheosizing Writers. Miss Tarbell 
Takes the Lead. Why Thomas Lincoln Left Kentucky. 
Apotheosizing Twaddle. Mr. Lincoln and Tzvo Little Girls. 

It is curious to compare some of what Lamon called the 
"pretended biographies" of Lincoln with the true story told by 
men who knew Lincoln and painted him just as he was in life, 
faults and all. In the smallest thing the "pretended biographies" 
misrepresent and misstate. Instance the following from Miss 
Tarbell's "Life of Lincoln:" 

"If Mr. Lincoln was not strictly orthodox, he was pro- 
foundly religious. He was a regular and reverent attend- 
ant at church." 

And this: 

"Lincoln never for a moment courted personal ambition 
before the cause of negro freedom." 

Lincoln's own words convict him of utter indifference to 
the cause of negro freedom. 

This from Tarbell (p. 220, Vol. i) : 

"So great an evil did Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks 
Lincoln (Lincoln's parents) hold slavery, to escape it they 
left their home in Kentucky and moved to a free state. 
Thus their boy Abe's first notion of slavery was that it was 
some dreadful thing to flee from, a thing so dreadful that it 
was one's duty to go to pain and hardship to escape it." 

Holland and other apotheosizing biographers tell about the 
same story on this subject. The falsity of this is proved by Hern- 



Chap. 14 Facts and Falsehoods. ' 79 

don, Lamon and Mr. Dennis Hanks, Lincoln's cousin. Lamon 
refutes the story thus : 

"It has pleased some of Mr. Lincoln's biographers to 
represent that Lincoln's father's move from Kentucky was 
a flight from the taint of slavery. Nothing could be farther 
from the truth. There was not at that time more than fifty 
negroes in all Harden County, which then composed a vast 
area of territory. It was practically a free community. 
There is not the slightest evidence that Lincoln's father ever 
disclosed any conscientious scruples concerning slavery. 
Abraham Lincoln's father got into trouble with a man named 
Enslow. They fought like savages. Lincoln bit off Ens- 
low's nose. This affray and the talk it made was the cause 
of Thomas Lincoln's escape from Kentucky." 
(See Lamon's Life of Lincoln, p. 916.) 

Lies are hard to kill. Notwithstanding the most positive 
evidence on this subject, the pretended biographers continue to 
tell falsehoods about Lincoln's hatred of slavery and his great 
piety. 

Although General Piatt at first opposed the deification of 
President Lincoln, and disliked the "pious lies," still as the years 
went by and the "pious lies" continued with an ever-increasing 
"piety," they got in their work on Piatt's mind, despite his per- 
sonal knowledge of how little they comported with the dead 
President's character. In 1887 Piatt wrote as follows: 

"It is strange now to know that during President Lin- 
coln's life, and for years after his death, he was popularly 
regarded as a shrewd, cunning sort of man." 

There was nothing strange in it. Lincoln zvas a shrewd, 
cunning sort of man, and the people knew it. 

During Lincoln's life, and for years after his death, Piatt 
well knew that Lincoln was a "shrewd, cunning sort of man." 
Every one who well knew Lincoln knew that Seward had judged 
correctly when he said Lincoln had a cunning which was genius. 
It was admitted by his friends that he was the shrewdest poli- 
tician of his age. "But," continues Piatt, "the public mind will 
slowly come to dwell entranced on that grand central figure — 
Abraham Lincoln." 

Entranced f Yes ; not with the real Lincoln, but with the 
deified man the public is taught to think was the Lincoln of 
the 6o's. Piatt himself had drawn Lincoln's pen portrait before 
the deified theory had entranced his faculties. 



8o Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 14 

"I saw," said Piatt, "a man of coarse, roii.^h fibre, with- 
out culture. His views of human nature were low, but good- 
natured. This low estimate of humanity blinded him to the 
South. He could not believe that men would fight for an 
idea. Lincoln considered the Southern movement a game 
of political bluff. 'The men of the South,' he said, 'won't 
give up the offices. Were it believed that vacant places 
could be had at the North Pole, the road there would be 
lined with dead Virginians.' " 

Had this man been born of the blood and blackness of the 
Hottentot race, had he grown up in the jungles of Africa, he 
could not have known less of the nature of Virginia's sons. Did 
he ever come to see his mistake? Did he ever come to realize 
how men will fight for the idea of independence? When Robert 
E. Lee refused to accept high rank in the Union Army because 
he would not. could not, fight his own people, but was willing 
to fight and die in their defense, did Mr. Lincoln realize that at 
least one Virginian valued ideas and principles more than office? 
In Herndon's suppressed Life of Lincoln we are told that from 
early youth Lincoln's whole and sole ambition was to gain office. 
Politics was Lincoln's trade, office his aim. Did Lincoln look 
into his own soul and measure Virginians thereby? 
On p. 237 of Lamon's Life of Lincoln is this : 

"Mr. Lincoln was never agitated by any passion more 
intense than his wonderful thirst for distinction ; distinction 
was the feverish dream of his youth. Thirst for distinction 
governed all his conduct up to the day the assassin ended 
his life. Mr. Lincoln struggled incessantly for place." 

In Weik's Story of a Great Life he says : 

"Mr. Lincoln's restless ambition found its gratification 
only in the field of politics." 

Piatt gives a pen portrait of Mr. Lincoln's face and form: 
"Mr. Lincoln," says Piatt, "was the homeliest man I 
ever saw. His body seemed one huge skeleton in clothes. 
Tall as he was (six feet four inches), his hands and feet 
looked out of proportion, so long and clumsy were they. 
Every movement was awkward in the extreme. He had a 
face which defied the artist's skill to soften or idealize. It 
was capable of but few expressions. When in repose his 
face was dull and repellant. It brightened like a lit lantern 
when animated. I discovered that he was a skeptic." 



Chap. 14 Facts and Falsehoods. 81 

Being a zealous abolitionist, Piatt sounded Mr. Lincoln on 
the question of slavery. Piatt says : 

"I soon discovered that ^Ir. Lincoln could no more feel 
sympathy for the wretched slaves than he could for the 
horse he worked or the hog he killed." "Descended," con- 
tinued Piatt, trying- to explain Mr. Lincoln's want of feeling 
for negroes, "from the poor whites of the South, he inherited 
the contempt, if not the hatred, held by that class for the 
negro race. It is the popular belief that Mr. Lincoln was of 
so kind a nature his generous impulse often interfered with 
his duty. To prove this, attention is called to the fact that 
he never permitted a man to be shot for desertion or sleep- 
ing at his post. This belief is erroneous. I doubt whether 
Mr. Lincoln had at all a kind, forgiving nature. There 
was far more policy than kind feeling which made him refuse 
to sanction the death penalty for desertion. It pleased Mr. 
Lincoln to be the source of mercy as well as the fountain of 
honor." 

Piatt's study of Lincoln's character led him to believe he 
was incapable of feeling pity for the suffering of others. Piatt 
also believed that God had created Lincoln callous of feeling to 
save him (Lincoln) from the pain of pity on witnessing the sol- 
diers' sufferings. Lincoln told General Schenck that the suffer- 
ings he witnessed never interfered with his comfort. "I eat my 
rations three times a day," said Lincoln, "and sleep "the sleep 
of the innocent." And this despite the horrors around him. 

In her life of Lincoln, Miss Tarbell describes the sights of 
\\'ashington City, which Mr. Lincoln could not avoid looking 
upon. 

"After battles," says Miss Tarbell. "for days and days 
long, straggling trains of mutilated men poured into the city 
on flat cars, piled so close together that no attendant could 
pass between the wounded men. Occasionally these wretched 
men were protected from the cold by blankets, which had 
escaped with its owner, or from the sun by boughs put in 
their hands, to be held over their faces on reaching Wash- 
ington. These suft'ering men were laid in long rows on the 
wharf or platform waiting until the ambulance carried them 
to hospitals. When one considers the wounded in the 
great Virginia battles he will realize the length and awful- 
ness of the streams of bleeding, suffering men which flowed 
into Washington City. At Fredericksburg they numbered 



82 



Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 14 



9,600, at Chancellorsville 9,762, in tha Wilderness 12,070, 
at Spottsylvania 13406. After the battle of Bull Run, 
churches, dwellings and government buildings were seized 
to put the wounded in. The hospitals could not begin to 
hold them. 

"By the end of 1862 Mr. Lincoln could hardly walk or 
drive in his carriage in any direction without passing a hos- 
pital full of the maimed, the dying. Even in going to his 
summer cottage he could not escape the sight of the 
wounded. The hillsides were dotted with tents during the 
entire war. Tents were close to the roadside, so as to get 
more fresh air. Mr. Lincoln frequently looTced from his 
carriage window on the very beds of the wounded soldiers." 
"The very beds." What does this mean, if not that Miss 
Tarbell's pity goes out not to the poor, mutilated, wounded, dy- 
ing men in the tents, but to the high functionary who — 

"Could hardly walk or drive in his carriage in any 
direction without seeing sufifering soldiers?" 

"When Mr. Lincoln/' continues Miss Tarbell, "visited 
these wretched sufferers, he freely shook hands with them, 
for which they were profoundly grateful." 
" Freely f" And why "profoundly grateful?" If gratitude 
was due from one side or the other, surely these maimed and 
bleeding men should have received it from the President who 
invited, or forced, them into the ranks to fight. They suffered 
while obeying his command. 

Miss Tarbell puts on record other equally important acts of 
Mr. Lincoln. Instance the following: 

"On one occasion two little girls, shabbily dressed, 
strayed into the White House. While gazing about, scared, 
President Lincoln happened to see them, and said: 'Little 
girls, are you going to pass me without shaking hands?' 
Then he shook each child by the hand. Everybody was 
spellbound." 

Can any man or woman in America see any good reason 
why "everybody" or anybody should be spellbound because an 
American President shook two little girls by the hand? Does 
Miss Tarbell look on all American Presidents as so high above 
common mortals that common mortals are "profoundly grate- 
ful" for a shake of their hands, whether "freely" made or other- 
wise? Does Miss Tarbell feel this way about every President, 
or is the above only the usual apotheosis twaddle Republican 
writers indulge in about Mr. Lincoln? 



Chap. 14 Facts axd Falsehoods. 83 

On the wall of one of the splendid art galleries in the pal- 
ace of Versailles hangs a large painting representing a street 
scene in Paris. The central figure is a portrait of a Bourbon 
King. He stands amid a group of little beggar children, one 
royal hand on the top of a little beggar girl's head ; the other is 
scattering coins among the children. In the background stands 
the King's attendants. If anybody was "spellbound" because a 
King patted the head of a little beggar girl on the street, no 
French historian has recorded the fact. 

In the study of Mr. Lincoln's character I find traits which 
no biographer has seemed to see. When Lincoln was only one 
of the common people, only a plain, poor man, his speeches and 
letters indicate a liberty-loving nature. After he became what 
his worshippers fondly term a "great ruler," his every act and 
some of his writings betray the spirit of autocracy as strong 
as any Caesar ever felt. A few instances will illustrate. In 1854, 
1 6th of October, in a speech delivered in Peoria, Illinois, Lincoln 
said: "No man is good enough to govern any other man with- 
out his consent." This is good Democratic doctrine. On hear- 
ing these words fall from Lincoln's lips in 1854, who would 
have thought it possible that within six short years from that 
time Lincoln would make himself the absolute master, not of one 
man alone, but of millions? In 1859 Lincoln still seemed to 
think and feel as a liberty-loving man. In that year a Boston 
committee invited Mr. Lincoln to speak at the celebration of 
Thomas Jefiferson's birthday. Unable to accept, Lincoln wrote 
to the committee as follows : 

"It is no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson 
from overthrow in this Nation. Some call these principles 
'dashing generalities,' others 'self-evident lies ;' expressions 
which tend to the supplanting of the principles of freedom. 
All honor to Jefferson, to the man who, in the concrete 
pressure of a struggle for independence, had the courage to 
forecast and the capacity to introduce into a merely revo- 
lutionary document, an abstract truth applicable to all men 
all times, and so embalm it that in all coming days it shall 
be a stumbling block to the harbingers of a reappearing iv- 
ranny and oppression. Abraham Lincoln." 

This has the true ring of freedom. Alas ! Alas ! How 
soon did Lincoln lose sight of Jefferson's grand truths? How 
soon did he trample them out of sight deep down in the bloody 
mire of a hundred battlefields. I beg the reader to hold the 



g Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 14 

above letter in mind, that he may compare it with one Mr. Lin- 
coln wrote four years later (1863), after he had made himself 
the absolute master of all the millions in the Northern States, 
and was hard at work to subjugate the millions m the South. 
Had the one letter been written by Thomas Jefferson himself, 
and the other by the Czar of Russia or the Sultan of Turkey, the 
spirit, the tone, the words, the meaning of the two could be no 
more' widely opposed. The one is as Democratic as the other 
is despotic. {See letter, second part, in reply to com- 
mittee requesting the liberation of Vallandingham.) 

In a speech at Springfield, Illinois, June 26th, 1857, Lin- 
coln quoted liberally from the Declaration of Independence, and 
laid great emphasis on the immortal words: 

"Governments derive their just powers from the con- 
sent of the governed." "The author of the Declaration 
of Independence meant it to be as, thank God! it is now prov- 
ing itself to be, a stumbling block to all those who in after 
times might seek to turn a free people back to the hateful 
paths of despotism. They know the proneness of prosperity 
to breed tyrants, and they meant, when such should appear in 
this fair land, for them at least to find one hard nut to 
crack." 

Lincoln never attempted to crack that nut ; he simply ignored 
it until he was Commander-in-Chief of over 2,000,000 armed 
men and felt himself the absolute ruler of the unarmed millions 
of the North ; then he boldly kicked that nut out of his way, and 
turned a free people back to the hateful paths of despotism. 
Those who believe in the possibilities of human foresight may 
easily fancy Mr. Lincoln at times possessed that occult power. 

In 1837, when Lincoln was 28 years old, he delivered a lect- 
ure in Springfield which seemed to foreshadow the part he him- 
self was destined to play in the awful drama of the 6o's. The 
title of this lecture was "The Perpetuation of Our Free Institu- 
tions." Lincoln began by talking of the danger that was ap- 
proaching the people of this country and the direction whence 
it would come. 

"At what point," he asked, "shall we expect the ap- 
proach of this danger ? Shall we expect some trans- Atlantic 
military giant to step across the ocean and crush us at a 
blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa, 
combined, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by 
force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the 



Chap. 15 Facts and Falsehoods. 85 

Blue Ridge, in a thousand years. The danger will not come 
from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must 
be its author and its finisher. As a nation of free men, we 
must live through all time, or die by suicide." 

Lincoln then expressed the belief that the danger would 
come from the demoralization of the American people. 

"That," he cried, "will be the time when the usurper 
will put down his heel on the neck of the people, and batter 
down the fair fabric of free institutions. -Many great and 
good men may be found whose ambition aspires no higher 
than a seat in Congress, or a Presidential chair, but such he- 
long not to the family of the Lion, or the tribe of the Eagle. 
What! Think you such places would satisfy an Alexander? 
a Ccesar? or a Napoleon? Never! Towering ambition dis- 
dains 'a beaten path. It seeks regions unexplored. It sees 
no grandeur in adding story to story upon the monuments 
already erected to the memory of others. It scorns to tread 
in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It 
thirsts, it hums, for distinction, and, if possible, it ivill have 
it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves or enslav- 
ing free men." 

When we remember Herndon's and Lamon's testimony that 
Lincoln's "thirst for distinction" was the master passion of his 
life, that his youth and manhood were spent in the restless and 
eager pursuit of office, of power, of place, the above words pos- 
sess a strange, if not prophetic, significance. Did Lincoln feel or 
fancy himself of the Lion family? Or of the Eagle tribe? Did 
his "towering ambition" disdain to walk in the path trodden bv 
the feet of preceding Presidents? Did he see no distinction in 
adding "story on story upon a monument already erected to oth- 
ers?" Did he "scorn to walk in the footsteps of any predecessor?" 
Was it "burning thirst for distinction above all other American 
Presidents" which made Lincoln "rush on carnage," enslave 
5.000,000 of his own race, color and blood, and set free 4,000,000 
of an alien race, a diflferent color, blood and kin? 



CHAPTER XV. 

A Brief Account of the Tzvo Policies, President Johnson's and 
That of the Republican Leaders. 

Soon after Johnson assumed the Presidency he sent General 
Grant. December 13, 1865, to make a trip over the Southern 



86 Facts and Falsritoods. Chap. 15 

States to observe and report the state of the country, and es- 
pecially the temper of the people. Were they disposed to keep 
the peace? Were there any signs of rebellion? Would they 
quietly return to the peaceful vocations of life? Grant made the 
following report to the President : 

"My observations lead me to believe that the citizens 
of the Southern States are anxious to return to self-govern- 
ment within the Union as soon as possible. They are in earn-' 
est in wishing to do what is required of them by the Gov- 
ernment, not humiliating as citizens, and will pursue such 
a course in good faith. There is such universal acquiescence 
in the authority of the general Government that the mere 
presence of a military force, without regard to number, is 
sufficient to maintain order. I am sorry to say that the freed- 
man's mind (the negro) is not disabused of the idea (which 
has come from the agents of the Freedman's Bureau) that 
a freedman has a right to live without care or provision for 
the future. The effect of the belief in the division of the 
land is idleness and the accumulation of negroes in camps, 
towns and cities. Vice and disease will tend to the extermi- 
nation or great reduction of the colored race. The necessity 
of governing any portion of our territories by martial law 
is to be deplored. If resorted to it should be limited in its 
authority, and should leave all local authorities and civil 
tribunals free and unobstructed. If insurrection does come, 
the law provides the method of calling out the forces to 
suppress it." 

These were the reasonably humane opinions Grant report- 
ed to President Johnson as a basis of action. These were 
Grant's views before the Republican leaders determined to im- 
peach, depose, many said hang, Johnson. From this report 
Johnson formulated his policy, which was to permit the States of 
the South to re-enter the Union as equals and himself generously 
to exercise the pardoning power toward the conquered Confed- 
erates. The Chicago Times, January 26, 1868, terselv defined 
Johnson's policy as follows: 

"President Johnson is in favor of thirty-six States in 
the Union, instead of twenty-five. He advocates the exten- 
sion of Federal rights to the whole country (including the 
Southern States.) He prefers civil over military author- 
ity." 



Chap. 15 Facts and Falsehoods. 87 

Republican leaders bitterly opposed this humane policy. 
In the ATarcb, number of the North American Reviezv, 1870. 
Wendell Phillips explains the Republican policy and why it was 
not carried out : 

"We all see now," said Phillips, "that magnanimity 
went as far as it safely could when it granted the traitor his 
life. His land should have been taken from him and divid- 
ed among" the negroes, forty acres to each family. Before 
Andrew Johnson's treachery, every traitor would have been 
only too glad to have been let off with his life. Every 
rebel State should have been held as a territory under the 
direct rule of the Government, without troublesome ques- 
tions. In his last years the late Vice-President, Henry 
W'ilson, confessed to me that our party made a great mis- 
take in not carrying out this policy. His only excuse was 
that the Republican party did not dare risk any other course 
in the face of the Democratic opposition." 

In that same magazine, same year and month, James (i. 
Blaine, of Maine, says that Republicans did not carry out that 
policy, because it would have led to the overthrow of their par- 
ty. No sense of justice or of mercy to the people of the South 
influenced them. While the two policies were struggling for 
dominance, many land owners in the South hurried off to Wash- 
ington to obtain "pardons" for the crime of having done their 
best to defend themselves from an invading host. The elder 
brother of the writer of this, an officer in the Confederate army, 
was among the number of "pardon" seekers. Johnson received 
my brother in a friendly W'ay — the two men before the war had 
been members of Congress and good friends. Neither man 
made any reference to the awful four years that lay between 
their parting and this meeting. My brother simply said: "Mr. 
President, I have come to you, an applicant for 'pardon.' " The 
last words must have stuck in my brother's throat, knowing as 
he did that of right pardons are due from the innocent to the 
guilty, not from the guilty to the innocent. But of this noth- 
ing was said. Without a moment's hesitation, President John- 
son turned to his secretary and said: "Make out a pardon for 

Mr. ," and the conversation was resumed, as if no gulf of 

blood lay between them. With the fewest exceptions, Johnson 
granted every request of that nature. These pardons greatlv 
angered Republican leaders. They had set their very souls on 
confiscating the land of the South, dividing it and giving 



88 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 15 

forty acres to every family of negroes. A pardon was supposed 
to save its possessor's land from confiscation. The first at- 
tempt to impeach Johnson was based on the charge of making 
the "White House a den for pardon brokerage." 

With one of these little pardon papers in his pocket, though 
his fields were laid waste, his peach-trees cut down, his cattle 
killed, his cotton gins, barns, stables, dwelling houses, all heaps of 
ashes, over which stood the chimneys "lone sentinels over the 
ruin ;" despite all this devastation, the poor Confederate sol- 
dier returned to his despoiled home with a feeling of satisfaction 
in the thought that at least the ground under his feet would be 
a resting spot for wife and little ones to stand on. and work in, 
and look up from to the blue heavens above, and they thanked 
God for that much saved from the awful deluge of blood and 
the awful waves of flame that had swept over their country. 
My brother described the striking change he had observed in Mr. 
Johnson, the difiference in the man since last they parted, the 
one to enter the camp of his people's deadliest foes, and the 
other to take up arms in defense of home, country, life, liberty ; 
all that men hold dear. Then Mr. Johnson was a strong, vigor- 
ous man, fronting the world and fate, hopefully expecting high 
success in life. He was now in the highest ofiice in the land, but 
his aspect, his eyes, showed no pleasure in that success. A deep 
depression seemed to weigh upon him ; hope, happiness seemed 
to have fled. The whole man seemed to be weary, care-worn ; 
yet in spite of all that might be seen the man's grim resolution 
to hold his own, to maintain at the risk of his life the policy he 
had determined to pursue. Though Johnson was on the conquer- 
or's side and my brother on the conquered, the latter was more 
to be envied. He felt lliat satisfaction which comes from hav- 
ing perfonv.ed a duty to the best of his ability. His soul was 
tortured by no remorse. He yielded to the inevitable without 
a murmur, realizing, as all the men of the South did, that it is 
no new thing in the sad history of humanity for the wrong to 
triumph over the right. The writer of this believes that An- 
drcv Johnson did not jom handr with the Republican narrv iv»r 
any purpose of despotic rule. He abandoned his people be- 
cause he was deceived into the belief that Republicans were 
fighting to restore the Union of our fathers. Though a man of 
strong native abilities, Johnson's faculties and information were 
within Hmited boundaries. He knew but little of the Southern 
people beyond his own Fast Tennessee. In his own State, John- 
son's political enemies liad accused liim of anarchistic tenden- 



Chap. 15 Facts and Fat.sehoods. 89 

aci^, of intense hatred of the wealthy class. One orator had 
boldly, from the stump, said "Andrew Johnson so hates rich 
men, he curses God in his heart because He had not made him 
^ snake, that he might crawl in the grass and bite the heels of 
rich mens' children." One can imagine the horror that must 
have overwhelmed Johnson when he discovered that the party 
to serve which he had abandoned his own people and State, was 
monarchistic to its heart core, and had no intention of restoring 
the Union of our fathers ; instead was determined to kill it, and 
erect on its ruins an Imperial Government. And to aid these 
men he had played traitor to his own State, to his own people ! 
Who does not believe when Johnson came to know the truth, re- 
morse, like a venomous serpent, lifted its head in his breast and 
fastened its fangs in his heart and gnawed and gnawed night and 
day. He had forever forfeited the affections of his own people, 
and now the men of the party he had served during the war 
hated him as fiercely as they hated the conquered "Rebel" lying 
with iron fetters on his feet in the dungeon cell of Fort Monroe. 
Though every day of his life a thousand curses were hurled on 
the name of that "Rebel" in Fortress Monroe, though iron chains 
and ball abraded and tortured him, though he was on the con- 
quered side and Johnson among the conquerors, there is reason 
to believe that patient prisoner was a less miserable man than 
the man in the White House. The former felt no pangs of re- 
morse ; he well knew the more he was cursed and reviled, the 
tenderer and stronger would be the love of his own people. He 
was threatened with the death due to felons and assassins, but 
he knew no accusation of his enemies would abate one jot the 
reverence, the esteem his own people gave him. What recom- 
pense had Johnson? Where could he look for affection, for 
sympathy? Not one particle of pride or pleasure did Johnson 
derive from the high office he was in. The same Nemesis which 
had struck down his predecessor as he was about to take his sea;t 
for another four years on the throne of power, had upon John- 
son her sleepless eyes, and, as he set his foot on the first step of 
Power's throne, that Nemesis touched it with her fatal finger, 
and lo! it became like unto red hot iron, scorching, shriveling, 
tormenting his very soul day and night during the whole period 
of his stormy term. 

The portrayals of Mr. Lincoln's personal traits contained in 
preceding pages were made by his contemporaries, who knew him 
well ; some of whom loved him well, all of whom now demand 
for him the highest honors, the deepest reverence mortal can re- 



Qo Facts and Fai.seiioods. Chap. 15 

ceive. The question to be considered is, do the quahties of Mr. 
Lincoln, attested by men of his own party, indicate that greatness 
of soul, purity of heart, and unselfish devotion to principles which 
merit the esteem and reverence the Republican party now de- 
mands shall be awarded to him? Or do they betray a man of 
coarse nature, a self-seeking politician, who craved high office, 
more to satisfy his own burning desire for distinction than to 
use power for the betterment of his fellow mortals? If the first 
(|ucry is answered in the negative, the next question will be, on 
what rests the claim made for Mr. Lincoln, of greatness, grandeur, 
goodness? Does this claim rest on the solid rock of beneficent 
acts done in the days of his power, or on a foundation of sand, 
which the waters of Time will surely undermine and wash away ? 
The deeds done by Mr. Lincoln in the days of his great power 
will bear witness in posterity's court. 



PART II 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Antagonistic Principles. The Great American Monarchist. Fed- 
eralists Fear and Hate Democracy. IVar on the South Began 
1796. The Olive BrancJi. The Pelhani Patters. New Eng- 
land Begins Work for Disunion and Secession in 1796. 

The undcrlving cause of every conflict between man and 
mail, tribe and tribe, countr}- and country, has been on the one 
side a craving- for power, on the other side an effort to escape 
that power. The nascent s]Mrit of one is Monarchy, of the other 
Democracy. These two principles are inherently and eternally 
antagonistic, and underlie nearly, if not every, war fought on 
earth. Stratas of superficial causes usually overlay and cover 
up the real causes of war, as they did in the war on the South. 

The seven years" war which severed the seceded Colonies 
from British rule was an open, undisguised fight between l\Ion- 
arcliy and Democracy. The four years' war between the South- 
ern and Northern States was a fight between the same old ene- 
mies. Monarchy and Democracy, though the astute Republican 
party, while heart and soul Imperialistic, concealed and cov- 
ered np that principle under loud declarations of Freedom and 
blatant professions of humanitarianism. Under these hypocriti- 
cal cloaks, the Monarchic principles had full swing for four 
years, and committed every species of crime and outrage pecul- 
iar to enraged Monarchists. When the soldiers of Monarch.) 
in 1783 took ships and sailed Eastward to their kingly country, 
the soldiers of Democracy fondly hoped they had driven their 
ancient enemy forever from this New Continent. The snake was 
scotched, but not killed. Nor was it banished. It remained 



cj2 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. i6 

here in our midst with veiled features and softened voice, bid- 
ing its chance to up and regain its former power. 

Alexander Hamilton was the head and front of American 
Monarchists. He wanted to make this Government a pure Mon- 
archy. Hamilton advocated a "strong centralized Government," 
of imperial policy. 

Gouverneur Morris, a contemporary and friend of Hamilton. 
said : 

"Hamilton hated Republican Government, and never 
failed on every occasion to advocate the excellence of and 
avow his attachment to a Monarchic form of Government." 

From the formation of the Union, the Federalists of New 
England hated and feared Democratic principles. Their great 
leader, Hamilton, made no secret of this feeling. In his speech 
at a New York banquet Hamilton, in high opposition to Je^f- 
ferson's Democracy, cried out: 

"The People ! Gentlemen, I tell you the people are a 
great Beast!" 

In 1796 Gov. Walcott. of Connecticut, said: 

'T sincerely declare that I wish the Northern States 
would separate from the Southern the moment that event 
(the election of Jefferson) shall take place." 
Congressman Plumcr, a Federalist and an ardent Secession 
ist, in 1804 declared that — 

"All dissatisfied with the measures of the Government look- 
ed to a separation of the States as a remedv for grievances." 

As early as 1796 men of Massachusetts began to talk of 
New England seceding from the Union. It was declared that 
if Jay's negotiation closing the Mississippi for twenty years 
could not be adopted, it was high time for the New England 
States to secede from the Union and form a Confederation by 
themselves. The Monarchic principles did not thrive under Ham- 
ilton's lead. Hamilton was too plain spoken. The Republican 
party became more astute. In 1861, while making loud profes- 
sions of desiring the largest freedom for the people, that party 
was making ready to rob them of every liberty they possessed. 
"At the formation of this Union," says E. P. Powell, "Hamilton 
laid before the Constitutional Convention of 1787 eleven propo- 
sitions, which he wished to make the basis of the Union, but they 
were so Monarchistic in tone they received no support what- 
ever." 



Chap. t6 F.\rT.s and FAr.SF.HooDS. 93 

The Republican war on the South stood solidly on Monarchic 
principles. The principles of 1776 were set aside in the 60s, but 
not for years after the South was conquered did Republicans 
openly admit they were inspired by the spirit of Monarchy. Dur- 
ing McKinley's last campaign, Hamilton was loudly lauded and 
Jefferson decried as a visionary, a French anarchist. Hamilton 
Clubs were organized and Republican novelists set to writing ro- 
mances with Hamilton as the hero. During Garfield's campaign, 
a Republican paper, the Lemars, Iowa, Sentinel, said : 

"Garfield's rule will be the transitory period between 
State Sovereignty and National Sovereignty. The United 
States Senate will give way to a National Senate. State Con- 
stitutions and the United States Senate are relics of State 
Sovereignty and implements of treason. Garfield's Pres- 
idency will be the Regency of Stalwartism ; after that — Rex." 
Fate used the hand of an insane "Stalwart" to impede, if 
not estop, the Monarchic plans of that time. The New York Sun, 
July 3rd, 1881, quoted President Garfield as saying: 

"The influence of Jefferson's Democratic principles is 
rapidly waning, while the principles of Hamilton are rap- 
idly increasing. Power has been gravitating toward the Cen- 
tral Government." 

Power did not gravitate, it was wrenched at one jerk to the 
Central Government by Lincoln's hand, as will be seen later on. 
Not until after Hamilton and Jefferson had passed away did the 
followers of Jefferson drop the name "Republican" which they 
had borne during his life, and assume the name "Democrat." 
Democracy — the rule of the people — is more expressive of Jeffer- 
son's doctrines. Not until 1854 did the men of the Federal and 
Whig persuasion unite and organize a party and take the name 
"Republican." The Republican party of the 60s was the legiti- 
mate offspring of the old New England Federalists, and inher- 
ited all its progenitor's faiths, hopes, hates and purposes, viz : 
Passion for power, fear and hate of Democracy, hate of the 
Union, belief in States' Rights, in States' Sovereignty, in Seces- 
sion, and the strong persistent determination to break the Union 
asunder and form of the Northeast section a Northeastern Con- 
federacy. All these ideas belonged to the old Federalists of New 
England, and were handed down to the Republican party in 
1854. 

Wendell Phillips, New England's tongue of fire, speaking of 
the inherent purposes of hi? part}', said: 



QA Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. i6 

"The Republican party is in no sense a national party. 
It is a party of the North, organized against the South." 
The Republican party zvas organized against the South, or- 
ganized to fight the South in every possible way ; to fight as its 
progenitors, the Federalists, had fought from 1796 to 1854, with 
calumnies, vituperations, false charges, every word and phrase 
hate could use, until the time came to use guns, bayonets, bullets, 
cannon balls and shells ; and faithfully did that party carry out 
the ignoble and cruel purpose of its organization. The war on 
the South was begun by the Federalists of New England in 1796. 
In 1814 a work of some four hundred and fifty pages, called 
"The Olive Branch," was published in Boston, which throws elec- 
tric light on certain almost forgotten events in New England's 
history. "The Olive Branch" contains extracts froaii a series of 
remarkable productions called the "Pelham Papers," which ap- 
peared in the Connecticut Coiirant in the year 1796. The Cour- 
ant was published by Hudson and Goodwin, men of Revolutionary 
standing. The Pelham Papers were said to have been the joint 
production of men of the first talent and influence in the State. 
Commenting on these papers of 1796, the "Olive Branch" of 
I 81 4 says: 

"A Northeastern Confederacy has been the object for a 
number of years. They (the politicians of New England) 
have repeatedly advocated in public print, separation of the 
States. The project of separation was formed shortly after 
the adoption of the Federal Constitution. The promulga- 
tion of the project first appeared in the year 1796, in these 
Pelham Papers. At that time there was none of that cata- 
logue of grievances which since that period, have been fab- 
ricated to justify the recent attempt to dissolve the Union." 

This refers to the efforts made in 1804 and 1814 to get the 
New England States to secede from the Union, so they might 
be separated from the Democratic Southern and Western States. 
The "Olive Branch" continues : 

"At that time there was no "\'irginia Dynasty," no 
"Democratic Madness," no "war with Great Britain." The 
afifairs of the country seemed to be precisely according to 
New England's fondest wishes. Yet at that 'favorable time 
(1796) New England was dissatisfied with the Union and 
begun to plot to get out of it. The common people, however, 
were not then ready to break up the Union. The common 
people at that time had no dislike of the Southern States. 



CiiAH. 16 Facts and FAi..Si:HOODs. q5 

Then New Eng-land writers, preachers and poHticians de- 
liberately begun the wicked work of poisoning their minds 
against the Southern States. To sow hostiHty, discord and 
jealousy between the different sections of the Union was the 
first step New England took to accomplish her favorite object, 
a separation of the States. Without this efficient instrument, 
all New England's efforts would have been utterly unavail- 
ing. Had the honest yeomanry of the Eastern States con- 
tinued to respect and regard their Southern fellow-citizens 
as friends and brothers, having one common interest in the 
promotion of the general welfare, it would be impossible to 
have made them instruments in the unholy work of destroy- 
ing the noble, the splendid Union." 

But for the unholy work of having taught the common peo- 
ple of New England to hate the people of the South, the cruel 
war of the 60s would never have been fought. 

"For eighteen years," continues the "Olive Branch" (the 
eighteen years from 1796 to 1814), "the most unceasing en- 
deavors have been used to poison the minds of the people of 
the Eastern States toward, and to alienate them from, their 
fellow-citizens of the Southern States. The people of the 
South have been portrayed as "demons incarnate," as des- 
titute of all the "good qualities which dignify and adorn hu- 
man nature." Nothing can exceed the virulence of the pict- 
ures drawn of the South's people, their descriptions of whom 
would more have suited the ferocious inhabitants of • New 
Zealand than a polished, civilized people." 

The following extracts are from the Pelham Papers, publish- 
ed in the Hartford Courant, iyg6: 

EXTRACT NO. i. 

"The question must soon be decided whether we shall 
continue as one Nation. Many advantages were supposed 
to be secured and many evils avoided by a Union of States, 
but at that time those advantages and evils were magni- 
fied to far greater size than either would be if the question 
at this moment was to be settled. The Northern States 
can subsist as a Nation, a Republic, without any connection 
with the Southern. If the Southern people were possessed 
with the same political ideas, our Union would be more 
close than in separation." 



g6 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. i6 

EXTRACT NO. 2. 

"It is a serious question whether we shall part with 
the States South of the Potomac. No man north of that 
river, whose heart is not thoroughly Democratic, can hesi- 
tate what decision to make. In a future paper I shall con- 
sider some of the great events which will lead to the sep- 
aration of the United States. I will endeavor to prove 
the impossibility of a Union, lasting for any long period, in 
the future, both from the moral and political habits of the 
Southern States. I will carefully examine and see whether 
we have not already approached the era when the Union 
of States must be divided." 

All through these extracts the reader will see it is the prin- 
ciple of Democracy which New England men wished to escape. 

The "Olive Branch" of 1814 comments on the Pelham Pa- 
pers as follows : 

"It is impossible for a man of intelligence to read the 
Pelham Papers without feeling a decided conviction that 
the writers, and their friends, were determined to use all 
their endeavors to dissolve the Union, in order to promote 
their sectional views. These papers offer a complete clue 
to all the sectional proceedings that have occurred since 
that period." 

From Carpenter's Logic of History, published in 1864, from 
the "Olive Branch," published in 1814, and from the Pelham 
Papers, published in 1796, we learn: 

1st. That the Federal leaders of New England, in 1796, 
advocated disunion, and were eager to get New England to se- 
cede from the Union, and to form a Northeastern Confederacy. 

2nd. On finding that the common people of New England 
did not favor secession, did not want disunion, did not dislike 
tiic Southern States, and were proud of the Union, the Federal 
leaders resorted to measures to convert the masses to their views 
on secession and disunion. 

3rd. These measures were of the meanest, the most con- 
temptible character; were a direct and lasc \-iolation of the Ninth 
Commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness." Poli- 
ticians, newspapers, and preachers of New England engaged in 
the evil work of bearing false witness against the people of the 
Southern States, whom they painted as "savages," as "barbari- 
ans," as "demons incarnate," as unfit to live in the "same Union 
with the virtuous people of New England." 



Chap. t6 Facts and Falsehoods. 97 

The following extracts from the "Olive Branch" throw light 
on this subject: 

"The increasing effort to excite the public mind to that 
feverish state of discord, jealousy, and exasperation, which 
was necessary to prepare it for the consummation of their 
desire (the secession of the Eastern States), the unholy 
spirit which inspired the writers of these dissolution senti- 
ments has been from that hour (1796 to the present 
( 1814) incessantly employed to excite hostility between the 
dififerent sections of the Union. To such horrible length 
has this spirit been carried that many paragraphs have ap- 
peared in the Boston papers intended to excite the negroes 
of the South to rise and massacre the whites. This is a spe- 
cies of baseness of which the world has produced few exam- 
ples." 

The baseness was indeed extraordinary in face of the fact 
that these efforts to instigate negroes to rise and massacre the 
whites of the South were made while the people of New Eng- 
land were still enriching themselves by carrying on the slave 
traffic. The third extract, taken from the Pelham Papers of 1796, 
is astonishing. 

EXTRACT NO. 3. 

"If the negroes were good for food," said a Pelham 
Paper, "the probability is that the power of destroying their 
lives would be enjoyed by their Southern owners as fully as it 
is over the lives of their cattle. Their laws do not prohibit 
their killing their slaves because those slaves are human be- 
ings, or because it is a moral evil to destroy them. Negroes 
are looked on only as brutes ; they are fed or kept hungry, 
clothed or kept naked, beaten and turned out to the fury of 
the elements, with as little remorse as if they were beasts of 
the field." 

The "Olive Branch" indignantly comments on these slander- 
ous lies on the Southern people as follows : 

"Never were more infamous and false charges made on 
a people. Never more disgraceful to their authors. The 
turpitude of the writers is enhanced by the fact that at the 
period these charges were made, negro slavery existed in 
the New England and other Eastern States, and at that mo- 



q8 Iv\(.'js AND Falskhoods. Chap. i6 

ment, and for long afterward. New England was actively 
engaged in the slave traffic." 

The "Ohve Branch" continues thus: 

"Some progress was made (toward teaching the com- 
mon people of New England to hate the South), but the yeo- 
manry of the Eastern States did not feel disposed to quarrel 
with the South for their supposed want of piety and moral- 
ity. I do not assert that these contemptible charges were 
laid down in regular form as a thesis to argue upon, but I 
do aver that they form the basis of three-fourths of all the 
essays, paragraphs, and" squibs that have appeared in the Bos- 
ton papers against the Administration for many years. 'The 
Road to Ruin,' ascribed to John Lowell, is remarkable for 
its virulence, its acrimony, its intemperance, and the talent 
of the writer. But if you extract from his essays the as- 
sumption of these positions, all the rest is mere caput nior- 
tnitm. The charges against the South are many, and in 
endless succession. These charges, however absurd, how- 
ever extravagant they appear in their naked form, have, by 
dint of incessant repetition, made such an impression on the 
minds of a large portion of the people of the Northeastern 
States that they are thoroughly convinced of their truth. 
The Rev. Jebadiah Morse, in his geography, attempted to 
perpetuate these vile prejudices. Almost every page that 
represent his own section of the Union is highly encomi- 
umistic. Everything is covered with flattering tints. When 
he passes the Susquehanna, what a hideous reverse ! Every- 
thing there is frightful caricature. Society is at a low ebb, 
the somber tints are used in order to elevate by contrast 
his own section , his Elysium, the New England States. He 
dipped his pen in gall when he portrayed the manners, hab- 
its and reHgion of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, Geor- 
gia, or the Western country." — (Logic of History.) 

The children of New England who studied the old Morse 
geography, when grown, were ready to accept and credit the 
slander on the South conveyed by maps issued in New England 
in 1856, half white, half black; the white half intended to repre- 
sent enlightened New England, the black half the barbarous States 
of the South. 

From S. D. Carpenter's Logic of History, published 1864, 
I get the following : 



Chap. i6 Facts and Falsehoods. gg 

"The Northeastern States early soug'ht to create prej- 
udice and disunion sentiment, not on account of any exist- 
ing fact, but to array section against section, to stimulate 
hate and discord for the purpose of accelerating their darl- 
ing object, the dissolution of the Union and the formation 
of a Northeastern Confederacy. Press, politicians and 
preachers were continually harping on causes which made 
disunion desirable. The motives which actuated New Eng- 
land disunionists was the desire to have what Hamilton 
called a strong government, understood to mean an autoc- 
racy similar to that of England, a large standing army, a 
heavy public debt, owned by the favored few, to whom the 
common masses should pay tribute, under the guise of inter- 
est. The main public offices were to be held by the rich 
and noble for long periods, or for life. It was argued that 
a national debt would be a national blessing, and prohibi- 
tive tariflf, under the guise of protection, be a blessing. These 
were the motives which led the early Federalists to want dis- 
union." 

The reader's attention is partictilarly called to the fact that 
during all the years which the Federalists of New England were 
teaching the gospel of hate toward the people of the South, there 
was no anti-slavery sentiment mixed with that hate. On the 
contrary, the hate begun while New England was enriching 
herself by the slave traffic, and while slaves were still held in 
New England. Not until some years after the end of the second 
war with Great Britain did New England mingle and mix anti- 
slavery sentiment with her animosity toward the people of the 
South. When the Democrat, Jefferson, succeeded the Federalist, 
Adams, and the Federalists of New England, as they put it, "saw 
power slipping from their grasp," their hope to effect disunion 
rose high. They set to work with great energy. 

I charge that the gospel of hate inaugurated by New England 
Federalists in 1796 was the beginning of the war on the South. 
I charge that hate of Democracy was at the very bottom of that 
war ; I charge that the South was hated because she was solidly 
Democratic. The Republican party, which, as Philips said, 
was organized against the South, had inherited all the Federalists 
hate of Democracy, hate of the I'r.ion, hate of the South, and 
with great zeal and eloquence, from the hour of it? organization 
in 1854, had preached the gospel of those three hates. Calumnies 
on the South were poured out in streams until all new England 



L.ofO. 



loo Facts \Srn Falsehoods. Chap. 17 

became infected as with a blood poison. The virulence of this 
hate never abated, never ceased, and finally culminated in that aw- 
ful deluge of blood which overwhelmed the Southland in the 60s. 
Wars do not, like mushrooms, spring up in a single night. Nor do 
they, like rank weeds, grow strong and full statured in a day or 
a week. They have their roots deep in the years of the past. The 
roots of the war on the South began to vitalize in the year 1796; 
those roots yet lie fathoms deep under New England soil ; they yet 
live. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Republicans Cover up the Real Cause of the War. Nezv England 
Secessionists. Early and Universal Belief in the Right of 
Secession. 

In J. C. Ridpath's history of the war between the States, he 
undertakes to give the cause which led to war. He says : 

"The first and most general cause of the war was the 
diflferent construction put upon the national Constitution 
by the people of the North and the South. This difference 
of opinion has always existed. The North held that the 
Union is indestructible under the Constitution ; that the high- 
est allegiance of citizens is due to the Union, not to their 
own State ; that all attempts at disunion are treasonable. 
The South held that the Constitution is a compact between 
sovereign States, and that a State or States can withdraw 
from the compact they themselves made." 

Although Mr. Ridpath has five letters, A. M.. L. L. D., ap- 
pended to his name to indicate his high standing in the world of 
letters, the most ignorant ploughman of the country could have 
made no greater mistake. At no period in the history of Amer- 
ica before the war did any such distinct difference of opinion 
on this subject divide the people of the North from the people 
of the South. On the contrary, the student of New England's his- 
tory knows that from the very formation of the Union, New 
England's foremost politicians were dissatisfied with it and begun 
to plan and plot to bring about disunion. Up to the very be- 
ginning of the war on the South, the Republican party advocated 
the principle of State sovereignty and the right of secession. 
The people of New England were the first to hate the Union, the 
first to desire secession, the first to strive to split the Union into 
two parts and to form of one part a Northeastern Confederacy 



Chap. 17 Facts axd Fai^sehoods. iot 

composed of Northeastern States. The benefit that would re- 
sult to New England from secession was openly discussed, as we 
have shown, as early as 1796. Colonel Timothy Pickering, an 
officer of the Revolutionary War, afterwards Postmaster-Gen- 
eral and Secretary of War and Secretary of State in Washing- 
ton's Cabinet, and after that a Senator for many years from 
Massachusetts, was a Federalist who believed strongly in the right 
of secession and in the advantages that would accrue to New 
England if she would separate herself from the Union, and there- 
by from legal contact with Democracy. In one of his letters 
Pickering talks of the "corrupt and corrupting influence of 
Southern Democracy," and ac^ds : 

"But I will not despair ; I will rather anticipate a new 
Confederacy, exempt from Democracy's influence. The 
principles of our Revolution point to the remedy — a separa- 
tion ; that this can be accomplished without spilling one 
drop of blood, I have little doubt." 

Governor Walcott, of Connecticut, on this subject, said: 

"I sincerely declare that I wish the Northern States 
would separate from the Union the moment that event (the 
election of Jefferson) shall take place." 

In 1794 Fisher Ames said: 

"The spirit of insurrection has taintec^ a vast extent of 
coimtry besides Pennsylvania." 

This referred to the spirit of disunion spreading in New 
England. The desire for disunion came from fear and hate of 
Democracy. It was declared in Massachusetts that if "Jay's ne- 
gotiations closing up the Mississippi for twenty years could not be 
adopted it was high time for the New England States to secede 
from the Union." 

Every few years something occurred which made New 
England declare it was high time for her to get out of the 
Union. When Louisiana Territory was purchased, and again 
when Louisiana was made a State, New England declared it was 
time for her to quit the Union. During the whole two years 
this country was waging its second war with Great Britain, New 
England preachers, newspapers, and politicians were anxious 
.for secession, declaring it was high time New England was out 
of the Union, anxious for New England to make a separate 
treaty of peace with old England. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, 
in his life of Webster, says : 



102 Facts and F.vlsehoods. Chap. 17 

"It is safe to say there was no man in this country, from 
Washington and Hamilton on the one side to George Clin- 
ton and George Mason on the other, who regarded our sys- 
tem of Government, when first adopted, as anything but an 
experiment entered upon by the 5tates, and from which 
each and every State had the right to peaceably withdraw, 
a right which was very likely to be exercised." 

A convention in Ohio in 1859 declared the Constitution was 
a compact to which each State acceded as a State, and as an in- 
tegral part, and that each State had the right to judge for it- 
self of infractions and of the mode and measure of redress, and 
to this declaration Joshua Giddings, Wade, Chase and Den- 
nison assented. 

Later on extracts from speeches made by the foremost men 
in the Republican party advocating secession, such men as Lin- 
coln, Wade of Ohio, Philips of Massachusetts, will be given. 
First will be given extracts from a work by E. P. Powell, of New 
York, called "Nullification and Secession," which throw light 
on New England's effort to secede from the Union in 1803 and 
1804. Powell says : 

"Of the Federal leaders in 1803, there remained in Wash- 
ington, among others, Tracy, Griswald, Plumer and Picker- 
ing. These beheld with dismay and horror the dissolution 
of their party and their own loss of power. They foimd 
themselves out of the offices of the Nation, and Republicans 
(Democrats) pursuing them into their own States, depriv- 
ing them of emoluments and honor. Angry, aflfrighted at 
their situations, they cried out : 'The South has clearly in- 
vaded our rights. Thomas Jefferson is President.' " 

Jefifersonian principles were the object of their fear and hate. 
Governor Walcott, years before, ha ddcclared that if Jefferson 
was elected to the Presidency he would want New England to 
leave the Union. 

"The people," says Powell, "en masse were followers of 
Jefferson. Nothing was left of the Federal party in 1800- 
3-4 but a gang of hopeless, disappointed leaders. These 
men had been recreant to their trust. The history of the 
Federal party has been one of high taxation, high salaries, 
usurpation of power and despotic legislation. Intrigue, cor- 
ruption, tyranu}-, had been the triumvirate of its short 
rule under Adams. It rioted to its own destruction." 



Chap. 17 Facts and Falsriioods. to_^ 

Will not every word of the above api)ly to the rule of the 
Republican party? Every word except those in the last line, 
''It rioted to its own destruction." Not yet has the Republican 
party rioted to its destruction. It still has its strong grip on 
the Government machinery, and still maintains itself in power 
and place, but the end of its rule is bound to come. It has made 
of this Government an imperial power. It has divided the peo- 
ple of America into two classes ; on one side the office-holders 
are our rulers ; millionaires are the nobility, which support the 
throne of power on which our rulers sit. On the other side are 
the laborers who toil and sweat to earn the wealth our rulers and 
nobility revel in. 

Meanwhile, monarchs of the Old World grin with delight 
over Democracy's downfall, and reach their hands across the 
ocean, jovially saying to our rulers, "Hail, brothers!" 

Not only is the history of the Republican party one of high tax- 
ation, high salaries, usurpation of power, despotic legislation, but 
it is the history of more bloodshed, more misery, more anguish 
of soul than any other history of the same number of years in the 
Nineteenth Century. Every pen that writes that history is dipped 
in the blood of men slaughtered in the most unnecessary, re- 
morseless, cruel w^ar ever waged between two English-speaking 
peoples. 

Finding themselves out of power and place, the Federals of 
1804 set themselves actively to work on their old schemes to sever 
the Union in twain, for the purpose of forming a Northeastern 
Confederacy. 

Powell says: 

"These Federalists undertook to pull down what Wash- 
ington and Jefferson had builded, that they might rule in a 
corner of its ruins !" 

The man who fancies that the secession of New England 
or of any State from the Union would leave it in ruins is not only 
ignorant of the logic of history, but is a foolish believer in the 
divine right of governments as against the inherent rights of 
the people. Whether Mr. Powell ranks himself a Democrat or 
an Imperialist. I know not, but I do know that when any man 
talks of this great American people being ruined by the with- 
drawal of one or of a dozen States, he talks from the imperial- 
istic standpoint, the kingly standpoint, which made George the 
Stupid in 1776 fancy his empire would be ruined if the thirteen 
jewels from his crown were not restored. Thinkers of this sort 
entirely lose sight of the fact that the "people," the great body 



I04 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 17 

of the people, is the country, not the mere machinery of the Gov- 
ernment and the few men who run that machinery. The Roman 
Empire broke asunder, but were the people of Europe any the 
worse ? 

Had the New England secessionists succeeded in 1796, or 
in 1804, or in 18 14, to get New, England out of the Union, and 
had they formed of her States a Northeastern Confederacy, in 
all human probability no gulf would have been dug between the 
Southern and Northern States, no gulf filled with the blood and 
bones of slaughtered men. No Democratic President would 
have resorted to bloody coercion. 

President Madison, in 1814, was not ignorant of the secession 
work going on in New England during the time this country was 
in the throes of war with a powerful foe, but Madison took no 
step to punish or estop New England's secession. As a true 
Democrat, he knew if the people of New England chose to se- 
cede they had the fight. Secession failed in 1796, because, as the 
secessionists themselves put it, "the common people did not 
feel power slipping from their grasp, as the leaders did." 

Mr. Powell gives extracts, showing how the politicians and 
newspapers of New England worked for the secession of New 
England in 1803 and 1804. From "Nullification and Secession " 
we take the following: 

Mr. Rive, of Connecticut, wrote Tracy in Congress : 

'T have seen many of our friends, and all I have seen, 
and many I have heard from, believe we must separate, and 
that this is the most favorable moment." 

Timothy Pickering wrote: 

"The people of the East cannot reconcile their habits 
and views and interests to those of the South and West." 

Ex-Governor Griswald wrote Oliver Walcott : 

"The project we had formed was to induce the Legisla- 
tures of the New England States which remain Federal to 
commence. They should call for a re-union of the North- 
ern States." 

The three States Mr. Griswald relied on were Massachu- 
setts (then including Maine), Connecticut and New Hampshire. 
Pickering wrote : 

"I believe the proposition to secede will be welcomed 
in Connecticut, and can we doubt in New Hampshire? New 
York rmist be associated ; how is her concurrence to be ob- 



Chap. 17 Facts and Falsehoods. 105 

tained? New York must be made the center of the New 
Confederacy. Vermont and New Jersey will follow, of 
course, and Rhode Island of necessity." 

George Cabot was cautious. He wrote : 

"While a separation at some remote period may take 
place, I think separation now is impracticable. The multitude 
do not feel as the leaders, who saw power sHding from their 
grip. We shall go the way of all governments wholly pop- 
ular, from bad to worse, until the evils, no longer tolerable, 
shall generate their own remedies." 

After consulting Chief Justice Parsons, Fisher Ames, and 
Atkins, Cabot wrote from Boston : 

"While some of the same opinion as Pickering think the 
time not quite ready, for myself I cannot believe essential 
good will come from separation while we retain the maxims 
and principles (Democratic) which all experience and reason 
pronounce to be impracticable and absurd. Even in New 
England, where there is more wisdom and virtue than in any 
other part of the United States, we are too Democratic alto- 
gether, and I hold Democracy to be the government of the 
worst." 

"More virtue and wisdom." This is a sample of New Eng- 
land's self-righteousness. 

Griswald was in despair. He wrote Walc(^tt that — 

"While we are waiting for the time to arrive in New 
England, it is certain that Democracy is making daily inroads 
on us, and our means of resistance are lessening every day. 
Yet it appears impossible to induce our friends to make any 
decisive exertions." 

Democracy was always the object of New England's hate. 

"A Democracy," wrote Dennis' Portfolio, "is scarcely 
tolerable at any period. It is on trial here and the issue will 
be civil war." 

The war came in the 60s ; Democracy on one side, Imperial- 
ists on the other. 

Fisher Ames said : 

"Our country is too big for Union, too sordid for patriot- 
ism, too Democratic for liberty." 



io6 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 17 

Cabot is credibly reported to have openly advocated a Pres- 
ident for life, and a hereditary Senate. 

Februar}^ 18, 1804, Burr was nominated for the Governor's 
office in Nev^ York. 

Pickering" wrote : 

"The Federalists anxiously desire Burr's election. If 
a separation of States is deemed proper for the New England 
States, New York and New Jersey will naturally be united. 
If Colonel Burr becomes Governor of New York by Federal 
votes, will he not be considered the head ?" 

Griswald replied : 

"Such is the jealousy of Massachusetts, it will be nec- 
essary to allow her to take the lead. Her magnitude and 
jealousy will render it necessary that the operation begin 
there. The first active measures must come from Massa- 
chusetts' Legislature next summer." 

Hamilton wrote: 

"Dismemberment of our Union will give no relief to our 
real disease, which is Democracy, the poison of which by 
subdivision will only be more concentrated in each part, and 
the poison become more virulent." 
Always Democracy. 
Pickering wrote : 

"By supporting Mr. Burr we gain some support, though 
of a doubtful nature. We think Burr alone can break the 
Democratic phalanx." 
George Cabot wrote : 

"If delay is tolerated, Democracy will have its work of 
ruin accomplished." 

Still harping on Democracy. 

Congressman Plumer announced that a convention (in 
the interest of secession) would be held in the fall and that Ham- 
ilton would attend. Burr was not elected Governor of New 
York, and soon after, in a duel, he killed Hamilton. The plan- 
ned convention fell through, the Federals lost hope of the im- 
mediate success of secession, but their work in that direction did 
not cease. 

Cabot wrote: 

"We must wait. If the United States can be involved in 
another war with Great Britain, our chance will come." 



Chap. i8 Facts axd Falsehoods. 107 

They waited for that chance, but never slackened in preach- 
ing the gospel of hate ; on tlic contrary, the virulence of that 
hate, augmented as the years went by, hate of Democracy, hate 
of the Union, because its highest officers were Democrats, hate 
of the South because her people were a unit in voting for Dem- 
ocratic officials. 

Mr. Powell says : 

"In all these efforts to sever the Union there was no 
anti-slavery sentiment." 

Nor was any anti-slavery sentiment mixed with all their hate 
of the South. Federal hate cf the Union and desire to secede 
was based on fear and hate of Democracy. 

Powell says : 

"It must be borne in mind that not once in all this plot- 
ting of 1803 and 1804 was the right of a State, or of a group 
of States, to secede questioned. The only argument any 
one made against secession was the unripeness of the com- 
mon people. Not one flash of loyalty to the Central Gov- 
ernment. Their intent was to create an oligarchy." 

Why should there have been a flash of loyalty to the Cen- 
tral Government ? No party in America at that time thought that 
more loyalty was due to the Union Government than to the State 
Governments. This doctrine was never declared until Lin- 
coln inaugurated war on the South, on the pretext that she was 
disloyal to the Union. Up to the very hour of that war Lin- 
coln's own party held that the South had the right to secede, the 
right to independence. Lincoln, Seward, Wade of Ohio, Phil- 
ips of Massachusetts, and hosts of other hign Republican speak- 
ers had publicly declared the South's right to secede, as will be 
shown later on. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Nezv England's Effort to Secede in 1812 and 1814 and 1815. 

The extracts given in the preceding pages show how anx- 
ious were. New England politicians, preachers and newspapers to 
get New England to secede ft^m the Union in 1796, and again in 
1803 and 1804. We will now show New England's still greater 
nnxietA- to get out of the L^nion in i8t2, 1814 and 1815. New 
England selected this time to secede, because the Union was in 



io8 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. i8 

the throes of war with a powerful foe. Was this from a desire 
to do the Union as much harm as possible? In 1799, when the 
FederaHst, John Adams, was President, FederaHsts counseled 
obedience, honor and respect to "rulers." When Democrats 
were in office their tune was changfed. We will first give extracts 
from the sermons of that time, to show the spirit of the people. 
The Rev. Dr. Parish, of Boston, a divine of hig:h standing and 
influence, in 179Q instructed his congregation to hold their mag- 
istrates in "reverence, honor and obedience." even to the extent 
of using for them the sword. "Cursed," said this divine, "is 
he that keepeth back his sword from blood, and he that hath 
none, let him sell his coat and buy one." In a sermon delivered 
April 7, 1 8 1.4, at Ryefield, Mass., the Reverend Parish felt and 
talked in a very different strain. The Government was then ar 
war with Great Britain, and New England, through newspapers, 
politicians and from pulpits, denounced Government officials as 
a band of ruffiians, and held up Old England as the most beneficent 
country that ever was. 

The Reverend Parish said in a sermon : 

"No peace will be made until the people say there shall 
be no war. AV^ar will continue till the mountains are melted 
in blood, till every field in America is white with the bones 
of her people." 

In another sermon at Ryefield he discoursed as follows : 
"The Israelites became weary of yielding the fruit of 
their labor to pamper their splendid tyrants. Where is our 
Moses? Where is the rod of his miracles? Where is our 
Aaron ^ Alas ! No voice comes from the burning bush. 
Such is the temper of American Republicans (Democrats at 
that time were called Republicans). A new language must 
be invented before we can attempt to express the baseness of 
their conduct or describe the rottenness of their hearts. Do 
you not owe it to your children, owe it to your God, to make 
peace for yourselves? You may as well expect the cataract 
of Niagara to turn its current to the head of Superior as a 
wicked Congress to make pause in the work of destroying 
this country. Tyrants are the same on the banks of the Nile 
and the Potomac, at Memphis ancj at Washington, in a Mon- 
archy or in a Republic ; like the worshippers of Moloch, the 
supporters of this vile administration sacrifice their children 
on the altar of Democracy. The full vials of despotism are 
poured out on your heads, and yet you may challenge the 



Chai'. i8 Facts and Falsrhoods. 



109 



plodding Israelite, the sUii)id African, the feeble Chinese, 
the drowsy Turk, or the frozen exiles of Siberia to equal 
you in tame submission to the powers that be." 

The reader's attention is especially called to two words in 
the above extract ; words of the deepest significance. "Stupid 
Africans." These words are something to ponder over. ''Stupid 
Africans." Up to that time. 1814, and for years after, the Fed- 
eral party had no respect and no love for negroes. New England 
men had imported negroes from Africa, consequently knew some- 
thing of negro nature. At that time they had no more idea of 
setting the African on a pinnacle high above the Caucasian than 
of putting the "feeble Chinese" thereon. All through the years 
from 1796 up to the year the Rev. Parish preached his sermon 
(1814) calling negroes "stupid Africans," the Federal party held 
negroes as inferior to the white race. In one of his sermons this 
eager secession preacher said : 

"Here we must trample on the mandates of despotism. 
or here we must remain slaves forever. Has not New England 
as much to apprehend as the sons of Jacob had? Let every 
man who sanctions this war remember he is covering himself 
and his country with blood ; the blood of the slain will cry 
out from the ground against him. This war not only toler- 
ates crimes, but calls for crimes— crimes are the food of its 
life, the arms of its strength. This war is a monster which 
every hour gormandizes a thousand crimes, and yet cries give ! 
give! The first moment the Dragon moved, piracy and mur- 
der were legalized. Those Western States which have been 
violent for this abominable war of murder, God has given 
them blood to drink. Their men have fallen ; their lament- 
ations are deep and loud." 

These extracts from sermons are taken from Carpenter's 
Logic of History, pages 37, 38, 39. 

A sermon delivered in Trinity Church, Boston, by the Rev. 
F. F. Gardiner, rector, April 9, 1812, contains this: 

"England is willing to sacrifice everything to conciliate 
us, except her honor and independence. The British, after 
all, save us by their convoys infinitely more property than 
they deprive us of. Where they take one ship they protect 
twenty. Where they commit one outrage, they do manv acts 
of kindness." 

A discourse delivered by this same secessionist divine on 
July 23, 1813. contained these passages: 



11,0 



Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. i8 



"This is a war unexampled in the history of the world, 
wantonly proclaimed on the most frivolous pretenses against 
a nation from whose friendship we might derive the most 
signal advantages. 

"Let no consideration, my brethren, deter you at all 
times, and in all places, from execrating the present war. 
It is unjust, foolish, ruinous. 

"As Mr. Madison had declared war, let Mr. Madison 
carry it on. This Union has long since been virtually dis- 
solved. It is full time that this part of the United States 
should take care of itself." 

The Reverend Dr. Osgood, pastor of the Med ford Church, 
Massachusetts, in a discourse delivered April 8th, 1810, has this: 
"The strong prepossession of so great a proportion of my 
fellow-citizens in favor of a race of demons (the people of 
the South) an.d against a nation (the British) of more re- 
ligion, virtue, good faith, generosity, beneficence, than any 
that now is or ever has been upon the face of the earth, 
wrings my soul with anguish, and fills my soul with appre- 
hensions and terror of the judgments of heaven upon this 
sinful people." 

Think of it, gentle reader, this good Christian preacher, 
this follower of the Merciful Nazarene, tells his audience that his 
soul is wrung with anguish and apprehension and terror of God's 
judgments upon them, because they had not all accepted the gos- 
pel of hate, and come to believe that the people of the South 
were a "race of demons," and the British the purest and best 
nation on the earth. In another discourse he Reverend David 
Osgood said : 

"Each man who volunteers his services in such a cause 
(the war with Great Britain) or loans his money for its sup- 
port, or by his conversation, his writings, or in any other 
mode of influence, encourages its prosecution, that man is an 
accomplice in the wickedness, and loads his conscience with 
the blackest crimes, and brings the guilt of blood upon his 
soul, and in the sight of God and his law, he is a murderer." 

On May 9, 1809, the Reverend Osgood discoursed before 
the Lieutenant Governor and the Legislature of Massachusetts, 
and preached resistance to the Union Government, as follows : 

"If we would," said this reverend disunionist. "pre- 
serve the liberties of that struggle (1776) so dearly purchas- 



Chap. i8 Facts and Falsehoods. hi 

ed, the call for resistance now is as urgent as it was for- 
merly against the mother country." 

The same Reverend Osgood, June 26. 181 2, in a sermon, 
predicted war on the South. He said : 

"If at the present moment no symptoms of civil war ci])- 
pear, there certainly shall soon, unless the courage of the 
war party fail them. A civil was is as certain as the events 
that happen to the known laws and established course of 
nature." 

In a sermon delivered in R}efield, 1814, Rev. D. Parish had 
this : 

"How will the supporters of this anti-Christian war en- 
dure the sentence, endure their own reflection, endure the 
fire that forever burns, the worm which never dies, the Ho- 
sannas of Heaven, while the smoke of their torment ascends 
forever and ever?" 

The following extracts from the iV<?7C' Hiii^laiid Press may 
be found in Carpenter's Logic of History, pages 40, 41 and 42. 

The Boston CentincI, December 10, 1814, had this: 

"Those who startle at the danger of the separation tell 
us the soil of New England is hard and sterile, that deprived 
of the productions of the South, we would soon become a 
wretched race of cowherds and fishermen. Do these people 
forget what energy can do for a people? Have they read 
of Holland? Holland threw oflf its yoke of Spain (our 
\'irginia) and its chapels became churches, its poor men's 
cottages princes' palaces." 

Was it not the very insanity of hate to liken the Presidency 
of \'irginia's men. Washington, JefiFerson, Monroe and Madison, 
to the despotism Philip II. of Spain wielded over Holland? Fed- 
eralists called these four men's election to office the "Virginia 
Dynasty," and ramped and raged over their Presidency as the 
cruelest despotism. 

It is said that to make a treaty of commerce with the 
enemy is to violate the Constitution and to sever the Union. 
Are these not already virtually destroyed?" — Boston Ccntinel, 
Dec. 14. 1814. 

On December 15. i8[4, the Ccntinel had this: 

"By a commercial treaty with England, which shall 
provide I'or the i.dmissiou of such States as mav wish to 



112 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. i8 

come into it, and which shall prohibit England from making 
a treaty with the South or West, our commerce will be se- 
cured to us, our standing in the Nation raised to its proper 
level, and New England's feelings will no longer be sport- 
ed with or her interests violated." 

And this while the Union Government was at war with Old 
England. This while the men of the South were bravely doing 
all they could by their valor in the army and their money to aid 
the Government in its struggle with a powerful foe. 

Though prohibited by acts of Congress, all during this coun- 
try's war with Old England, New England carried on with the 
enemy illicit intercourse. 

The moment our government gunboats wqre out of Boston 
harbor, British merchatnmen, continually hovering about the 
coast, would come in, deliver their contraband cargo, receive 
specie and British bills of exchange, and return for another car- 
go. If States could blush, New England's face, even to this day. 
would burn with shame at the false, the treacherous part, she 
played during the second war with Great Britain. 

The Boston Coitincl, December 7, 1814, had this: 

'Tf we oppose them (the administration) with a high- 
minded and steady conduct, who shall say we shall not beat 
them all? Why this delay? (Delay of making a separate 
peace with Old England and seceding from the Union.) 
Why leave that to chance which our firmness should com- 
mand? Let no difficulties stay our course, no danger draw 
us back. We are convinced the time has come when Massa- 
chusetts must make a resolute stand. The sentiment is hour- 
ly extending, and in the Northern States will soon be uni- 
versal, that with respect to the South we are in the condi- 
tion of a conquered people." 

New England had been conquered at the polls. Democracy 
had won by ballots the victory over Federalism. This was the 
conquest New England men rankled and raged over. On Janua- 
ry 10, 1 8 14, Deerfield, Massachusetts, sent a petition, numer- 
ously signed, to the State authorities, from which we take the 
following extract : 

"Should the present administration, with the aid and 
adherence o-f the Southern States, still persist in the prosecu- 
tion of this wicked war, and in unconstitutionally creating 
new States in the mud of Louisiana, he inhabiants of which 



Chap. i8 Facts and Falsehoods. 113 

country are as ignorant as the alligators of its swamps, in 
opposition to the rights and privileges of New England, 
mvich as we deprecate a separation of this Union, we deem 
it an evil much less to be dreaded than co-operation with 
them in their nefarious projects." 

What rights and privileges had New England over and 
above the rights and privileges of other States? The word 
privilege is out of place under a free and equal government. 
The Federalists of New England fancied themselves more fit to 
govern than Democrats. They fancied the privilege of Rule 
was theirs by right divine. The love of power and high place 
was the very passion of the Federal soul. 

In Crisis No. 3 we find this : 

"The public welfare will be better promoted in a sep- 
arate than in one Federal Constitution. The attempt to 
unite this vast territory under one head is absurd."^ — Logic 
of History. 

The Federal Republican, 1814, asked this question: 

'Ts there now the least foundation to build a hope on that 
this Union will last twelve months? A peaceable separa- 
tion will be for the happiness of all sections." 

In an Ipswich. [Massachusetts, memorial, September 18, 
1813, we find this: 

"iTie Government of these States has almost completed 
their ruin. The time has arrived when Massachusetts 
must make a resolute stand. What shall we do to be saved ? 
Only one thing. The people must rise in their majesty and 
compel their unworthy servants to obey their will. The 
Union is already practically dissolved." 

The Boston Ccntincl, September 10, 1814. had this: 

"The Union of the Northern and Southern States is 
very much opposed to the interests of both sections. The 
extent of territory is too large to be governed by the same 
representative body. Each section will be better satisfied 
to govern itself. Each is large and populous enough for 
its own protection. The Western States will govern them- 
selves better than the Atlantic can govern them. It is cer- 
tain that the Atlantic States do not want the aid or counsel 
of the Western States. The public welfare would be more 



114 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. i8 

promoted in a separate than in a Federal Constitution." 

This was true then and is true now. 

"The sufferings so thick about us have aroused New 
England. She will now meet every danger until her rights 
are returned to the full. She will say to the men of New 
England, if they hope to lead in the cause of New England's 
independence, they must do it in the spirit of New England 
men." — Boston CentiiicI, December 7. 1814. 
The Boston Advertise}-, 1814, said: 

"Our plan is to withhold our money and make a sepa- 
rate peace with Great Britain." 

The Federal Republican, 1814. had this: 

"The Eastern States are marching steadily and straight 
forward up to revolution. In times past there was much 
talk and loud menace, but little acting, among the friends 
of reform (secession from the Union). Now little is said 
and much done. The new constitution of the Hartford 
convention is to go into operation as soon as two or three 
States shall have adopted it." 

On January 5, 181 5, at a meeting held at Reading. Massa- 
chusetts, a string of resolutions was passed, one of which is as 
follows : 

"Resolved, That we place the fullest confidence in the 
Government and Legislature of Massachusetts, and in the 
State authorities of New England, and to them, under God, 
we look for aid and direction." 

These Federalists, as was their offspring, the Repul)lican 
party, were strong States' ric'ht'? advocates rn to t'le lionr the 
war begun at Fort Sumter. Then they made a sudden sum- 
mersault, and declared States' rights and secession unpardonable 
crimes resulting from leprosy of the mind as foul as leprosy of 
the body. 

The Boston Repertory, 1814, was so eager for New England 
to leave the Union, and so full of the idea that there would be 
a war with the South, it addressed the people of New England 
with an air of command : 

"Americans !" cried out the Repertory, "prepare yotu- 
arms! You will soon be called to use them!" 
The New York Commercial Advertiser had this : 



(/hap. i8 Facts and Falsehoods. ii^ 

"Old Massachusetts is as terrible to the Americans now 
as she was to the British Cabinet in 1775. America has her 
Butes and her Xorths. Let the commercial States breast 
themselves to the shock. Then, and not till then, shall they 
humble the pride of \'irginia and chastise the insolence of 
the madmen of Kentucky and Tennessee, who aspire to the 
Government of these States." 

January 31, 1814, the citizens of Newburyport, Massachu- 
setts, sent a memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts, from 
which we get this extract: 

"Our unquestionable rights are invaded. We call upon 
our State Legislature to protect us in our privileges, to de- 
fend which we are ready to resist unto blood. We are ready 
to aid you to our utmost power in securing our privileges, 
peacefully if we can, forcibly if we must; and we pledge 
ourselves in support of every measure the dignity and liber- 
ties of this free, sovereign and independent State may seem 
to your wisdom to demand." 

The onlv complaint these men had against the Government 
was, it was waging war with Great Britain. 

The Federal Republican. Xovember 7, 18 [4. put forth this 
terrible threat : 

"On or before the 4th of July, if James Madison is not 
out of office, a new form of government will be in operation 
in the Eastern section of the L'nion ; the contest then w-ill be 
whether to adhere to the old or join the new government." 

From an open letter to James Madison, published and large- 
ly circulated through New York and New England, in May, 1814, 
titled "Northern Grievances,^' wx give the following: 

"If the impending negotiations with Great Britain are 
defeated ; if the friendly and conciliatory proposals of the 
enemy should be met so as not to terminate this infamous 
war, it is necessary to apprise you (President Madison) that 
such conduct will be no longer borne. The injured States 
of New England will be compelled by duty and honor to dash 
into atoms the bonds of tyrann}-. It will then be too late to 
retreat : the die will be cast : freedom purchased. A separa- 
tion of the States will be inevitable. Motives numerous and 
urgent wnll demand this measure. The oppressors will be 
responsible for the momentous events arising from the dis- 
solution of the Union. It will be their work. Posterity 



ii6 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. i8 

will admire the independent spirit of the Eastern section of 
our country, and will enjoy the fruits of our firmness and 
our wisdbm. The descendants of the South and West will 
have reason to curse the folly of your counsels. Bold and 
resolute in the sacred object, no force can withstand our 
powerful arms. The most numerous army will melt before 
our manly strength. History will instruct you that the feeble 
debility of the South could never face the vigorous activity 
of the North. A single spark of Northern liberty will ex- 
plode the whole atmosphere of sultry Southern despotism. 
Do you imagine the energy of the Northern freemen is 
to be smothered ?" 

No human was trying to smother their energies. On the 
contrary, Mr. Madison would have been delighted had those 
Northern freemen put some of their energy into the war against 
Great Britain, instead of doing all they could to give aid and com- 
fort to the enemy, 

"Do you think," continued this curious letter, "that we 
will allow ourselves to be trampled on? and by whom? The 
Southern and Western States?" 

History does not show the slightest sign of any effort or wish 
of the Southern and Western States to trample on New England. 

"The aggregate strength," continues the letter, "of the 
South and West, if brought against the North and East, would 
be driven into the ocean or back to their own wilds, and they 
might think themselves fortunate to escape other punishment 
We would fight for freedom, they to enslave. Beware! 
Pause! before you take the fatal plunge. You, sir, have car- 
ried your oppression to the utmost stretch. We will no 
longer submit. Name an immediate peace. Protect our 
seamen. Unless you comply with these just demands with- 
out delay, zve ivill withdraw from the Union." 

Oh, would to God New England then and there had with- 
drawn from the Union! It would have been a bloodless with- 
drawal. Aladison and Monroe had both expressed the opinion 
that to coerce a seceding State would be suicidal to freedom. 
Legal divcice from the Slates New England had so long hated 
might have abated soincwhat the insanity of that hate. Juster, 
kinder feelings nu'ght have softened her heart toward a people 
who certainly had not given New England cause to hate. Had 
separation then taken place the Northern people might not have 



Chap. i8 Facts and Falsehoods. 117 

aided and abetted the Republican party in committing the awful 
crime of drenching- American soil with brothers' blood. Had 
New England States then seceded, no blood would have been shed 
to force them back kito a Union she detested. Every Democrat 
in America knew and knows that the Union Government had 
and has no moral or legal right to coerce seceding States. Such 
was then the opinion, both North and South. In the convention 
of 1787 the question of secession and coercion was up for dis- 
cussion. Madison said : 

"A Union of States with such an ingredient as coercion 
would seem to provide for its own destruction." 

It certainly would provide for the destruction of the prin- 
ciples of liberty itself. Looked at by the lurid light of the 60s, 
one expression in the above letter to President Madison will 
make the reader pause and reflect a moment. The "feeble debil- 
ity of the South could never face the vigorous activity of the\ 
North." 

The Republican party had inherited from its progenitor, the 
Federal, the above idea of the South's feeble debility. Members 
of that party invited United States Senators and Congressmen 
to take their wives and daughters out to see the first fight of the 
war, especially to "see the rebels run at sight of Union soldiers." 
Everybody knows how the rebels ran at Bull Run. 

Republican officers of the Union army have expressed their 
opinion of the South's "feeble debility." General Don Piatt, a 
Union officer, on this subject has this: 

"The true story of the late war," wrote General Piatt, 
in 1887, "has not yet been told. It probably never will be 
told. It is not flattering to our people ; unpalatable truths 
seldom find their way into history. How rebels fought the 
world will never know ; for two years they kept an army 
in the field that girt their borders with a fire that shriveled 
our forces as they marched in, like tissue paper in a flame. 
Southern people were animated by a feeling that the word 
fanaticism feebly expresses. (Love of liberty expresses it.) 
For two years this feeling held those rebels to a conflict in 
which they were invincible. The North poured out its noble 
soldiery by the thousands, and they fought well, but their 
broken columns and thinned lines drifted back upon our 
capital, with nothing but shameful disasters to tell of the 
dead, the dying, the lost colors and the captured artillery. 
Grant's road from the Rapidan to Richmond was marked 



ii8 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. i8 

by a highway of human bones. The Northern army had 
more killed than the Confederate Generals had in command." 

"We can lose five men to their one and win," said Grant. 
The men of the South, half starved, unsheltered, in rags, shoe- 
less, yet Grant's marches from the Rapidan to Richmond left 
dead behind him more men than the Confederates had in the 
field! 

General Piatt speaks as follows of the "feeble debility" of a 
Virginian General : 

"It is strange," say^ Piatt, "what magic lingers about 
the mouldering remains of Virginia's rebel leaders. Lee's 
very name confers renown on his enemies. The shadow of 
Lee's surrendered sword gives renown to an otherwise un- 
known grave." (Grant's.) 

The Reverend H. W. Beecher pi^eached a sermon in his 
church on the "Price of Liberty," which he said was not only eter- 
nal vigilance, but eternal self-sacrifice. Beecher astonished his 
congregation by illustrations from the South. 

"Where," exclaimed the preacher, "shall we find such 
heroic self-denial, such upbearing under every physical dis- 
comfort, such patience in poverty, in distress, in absolute 
want, as we find in the Southern army? They fight better 
in a bad cause than you do in a good one ; they fight better 
for a passion than you do for a sentiment. They fight well 
and bear up under trouble nobly, they sufifer and never com- 
plain, they go in rags and never rebel, they are in earnest for 
their liberty, they believe in it, and if they can they mean 
to get it." 

What words can express the baseness, the devilish wicked- 
ness of a party which waged a bloody war to rob such people of 
the liberty which was theirs by right? Theirs by inheritance 
from their forefathers of 'y6? 

The Republican leaders of the 60s were as ignorant of the 
nature of Southern men as were their progenitors who talked 
of the "South's feeble debility." Piatt relates an interview he 
had with Lincoln before the outbreak of the war. 

"Lincoln's low estimate of humanity," says Piatt, "blind- 
ed him to the South. He could not undertsand that men 
would fight for an idea. He thought the South's movement 
a sort of political game of bluff." 



Chap. i8 Facts and Falsehoods. 119 

"The South can't fight," said one; "she has no re- 
sources." 

Hannibal HamHn said : 

"The South will have to come to us for arms, and come 
without money to pay for them." 

"And for coffins," said John P. Hale, with a laugh. 

"To put a regiment in the field," said Mr. Speaker 
Banks, "costs more than the entire income of an entire 
Southern State." 

It was not long before the men of the North found that the 
South's soldiers supplied themselves zmth arms and clothing capt- 
ured from Union soldiers. 

Extracts from an address to the Hartford convention: 
"The once venerable Constitution has expired by disso- 
lution in the hands of the wicked men (Democrats) who were 
sworn to protect it. Its spirit, with the precious souls of its 
first founders, has fled forever. Its remains will now rest 
in the silent tomb. At your hands, therefore, we demand 
deliverance. New England is unanimous, and we announce 
our irrevocable decree that the tyrannical oppression of those 
who at present usurp the power of the Constitution is be- 
yond endurance, and we will resist \ir— Boston Centinel, 
December 28, 1814. 

"New England will look with an eye of doubt on those 
who oppose us. She will meet every danger and go through 
every difficulty, until her rights are restored. Throwing oflf all 
connection with this wasteful war and making peace with 
the enemy would be a wise and manly course." — Boston Cen- 
tinel, December 17, 1814. 

Extracts from a memorial of the citizens of Newburyport 
to the Legislature of Massachusetts, January 31, 1814: 

"Is there a Federalist patriot in America who thinks 
it is his duty to shed his blood for Madison, for JeflFerson, 
and the host of ruffians in Congress who have set their 
faces against us for years, and spirited up the brutal part of 
the populace to destroy us? Mr. Madison cannot complete 
his term of service if this war continues ; it is not possible. 
Mr. Madison may rest assured there is in the hearts of many 
thousands in this abused, ruined country a sentiment and 
energy to resist unto destruction when his mad men shall 
call it into action." 



I20 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. i8 

The following extract from an address to the Hartford con- 
vention, December ^4, 1814, will show the feeling of the Federal 
disunionists toward white people of the South, as well as toward 
the negroes : 

"Long enough," says this address, "have we paid taxes 
and fought the battles for the Southern States ; long enough 
have we been scouted and abused by men who claim a right 
to rule us ; long enough have we been slaves to the senseless 
representatives of the South, the equally senseless natives of 
Africa, and the barbarous huntsmen of the Western wilder- 
ness. Realities alone can work our deliverance, and deliver- 
ance we solemnly and irrevocably decree to be our right and 
we will obtain it." — Boston Centinel, December 24; 1814. 

The reader will note the significant phrase, "equally senseless 
natives of Africa." A few years from that time New England 
placed negroes on a tall pinnacle and put saintly aureoles around 
their heads, and all good Republicans did them homage. On the 
8th of October, 1814, a committee of the Massachusetts Legisla- 
ture submitted a report by Mr. Otis, chairman, in favor of calling 
a convention for all the New England States with the object of 
forming a Northeastern Confederacy. The result was the Hart- 
ford convention, which met December 15, 1814. This convention, 
as we have shown by extracts, took the strongest possible stand 
for States' rights. In a report this convention enunciated its 
opinion of States' rights in these words : 

"It is not only the right, but the duty, of each State to in- 
terpose its authority in the manner best calculated to secure 
its own protection. States must be their own judges and ex- 
ecute their own decisions." 

New England, during the second war with Great Britain, 
acted boldly and openly on States' rights pnnciples. She refused 
to aid and support the Union. Her preachers, press and politi- 
cians praised the English and in every way manifested a friendly 
leel'.ng toward Old England, all the while abusing their own Gov- 
ernment as managed by a "gang of ruffians." February 14, 1814, 
the two Houses of the Massachusetts Legislature put forth a re- 
port in which is this solemn declaration : 

"The question of New England's withdrawal from the 
Union is not a question of power or of right to separate, but 
only a question of time and expediency." ' 



Chap. i8 Facts and Falsehoods. 121 

A few years later Massachusetts called such doctrines black- 
est treason, and sent armies on the Southern people to kill, con- 
quer or annihilate them for having acted on those doctrines. 

The doctrine of States' rights was taught by politicians, press 
and preachers of New England up to the very hour the South 
seceded. This fact is indisputable. Not until Lincoln began war 
on the South were secession and States' rights called a political 
crime. The Olive Branch (1814) said: 

"Massachusetts has dared the national Government to 
conflict. She has seized it by the throat, determined to stran- 
gle it if she can." 

A committee of the New York Legislature (1814) made the 
following statement : 

"It is the opinion of this committee that the New 
England Federalists mean to make peace with the enemy and 
to forcibly separate New England from the Union." 

So universal was this opinion, on the nth of October, 1814, 
thirteen Democratic Senators and thirty-five Congressmen issued 
a strong but kindly worded protest against New England's dis- 
union movements, to which one of New England's Federal leaders 
angrily replied : 

"Do you imagine that we will allow ourselves to be tram- 
pled on by the South and West?" 

The only shadow of being trampled on was the fact that the 
Democrats of the South and West had elected Democrats to the 
national offices, and the South and West approved of the war then 
going on with Great Britain, and gave the administration all the 
moral and financial support they could, opposed to the wishes of 
New England. 

A speaker in the Massachusetts Legislature in 181 4 made the 
following solemn declaration : 

"The Constitution has expired by dissolution. The 
Union Government is beyond endurance ; we will resist. New 
England will bear no half way measures. She wants men 
who will lead the cause of New England independence." 

An address delivered in the Hartford convention rehearses 
the wrongs it was claimed that New England suffered which ne- 
cessitated secession from the Union : 

"They," the said wrongs, "may be traced to implacable 
combinations of individuals and States to monopolize power 
and office, and to trample without remorse on the rights and 



122 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. i8 

interests of the commercial section of the Union." 

Because of these fancied wrongs New England hated Demo- 
crats, hated the South, hated the Union, was eager to leave it, 
and fiercely wanted to war on the Southern people. Up to that 
hour not one particle of anti-slavery sentiment was mingled with 
New England's animosity, or with her desire to secede from the 
Union. Up to the year 1815, with New England's insane hatred 
of the Southern whites, she had not yet mixed an insane love for 
Southern blacks. Up to that year New England's political 
speakers, press and preachers, when referring to negroes, called 
them "stupid Africans." "senseless blacks," or other names con- 
veying contempt and belief in negro inferiority. 

In his work, "Nullification and Secession," E. P. Powell says : 

"It is very partial partisan reading of American history 
not to see that from the acceptance of the Constitution in 1790 
there has been a tendency to assert the rights of States, and 
the rights of States to sever relation to the Union. New 
England, in 1803-04, tried to get five States to secede. New 
York, New Jersey and the New England States. In 1812-14 
New England practically withdrew from co-operation with 
the Union." 

Mr. E. P. Powell, of New York, wrote "Nullification and Se- 
cession" in 1897, thirty-two years after the war of conquest on 
the South. A conquest which, as Mr. Powell knows, was made 
by the Republican party on pretense that that party looked on se- 
cession as the most damnable crime a people can commit. Was 
Mr. Powell afraid to tell the whole truth about the secession prin- 
ciples held and taught by the Republican party and its progenitors, 
the Federals? Mr. Powell timidly says: 

"From 1790 there has been a tendency to assert States' 
rights, and the right of the States to sever relation to the 
Union." 

The word tendency means an inclination, a leaning, a drift 
in one or another direction. Did not Mr. Powell know that the 
Federal party, almost from the formation of the Union, had been 
dissatisfied with it ? He certainly knew, as he shows in his work, 
"Nullification and Secession," that this party not only had a "ten- 
dency" toward States' rights and secession in 1804 and on to 
the end of the second war with Great Britain, but a decided inten- 
tion and determination to get the Northeastern States to secede 
and to form a Northeastern Confederacy. Mr. Powell knows 



Chap. i8 Facts and Falsehoods. 123 

how hard the men of New England worked for secession, and how 
boldly they avowed and maintained the doctrine of States' rights. 
Is it possible that he does not also know that the Republican party 
continued the work of the Federals in that direction up to the 
very hour of the South's secession? Does he not further know 
that after the Republican party conquered the South on the pre- 
text that it (the Republican party) so loved the Union it waged a 
bloody war to save it, this same Republican party now tries to 
bury out of sight its former advocacy of secession and States' 
rights, and frowns severely on any writer who dares to bring to 
the front that part of its history? Was it fear of Republican 
frowns that made Mr. Powell use the gentle word tendency 
instead of the plain English word advocacy, and the strongest 
sort of advocacy at that? 

S. D. Carpenter, a close and critical student of political 
events, in his invaluable work, The Logic of History, published 
in 1864, says: 

"The Northeastern States early sought to create preju- 
dice and disunion, not on account of any existing facts, but to 
array section against section, to stimulate hatred and discord 
for the purpose of accelerating their darling object, dissolution 
of the Union and the establishment of a Northeastern Con- 
federacy. For years the disunionists of the North have mani- 
fested the boldness of a Cromwell, the assiduity of beavers, 
the cunning of a fox and the malignity of Iscariot." 

Do not the extracts I have laid before the reader show de- 
termination to arouse hatred of the Southern people ? The reader 
must never lose sight of the fact that Federal and Republican 
hatred sprung from hatred of Democracy. The Union was hated 
because the majority of men in the Union elected too many Dem- 
ocratic Presidents. These Presidents, Washington, Jefferson. 
Monroe and Madison, were hated and called the "Virginia dy- 
nasty." A New Englander was the first man in the American 
Congress to threaten disunion. January 11, 181 1, Josiah Quincy, 
of Massachusetts, from the floor of Congress declared: 

"The purchase of Louisiana and the admission of that 
State into the Union would be a virtual dissolution of the 
Union, rendering it the right of all, as it becomes the duty of 
some men to prepare definitely for the separation of the 
States, amicably if they might, forcibly if they must." 

Mr. Quincy reduced the above to writing and sent it to the 
Clerk of the House. 



124 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. i8 

Mr. Poindexter of Virginia, sprang to his feet : 

"That," he cried, " is the first threat on the floor of Con- 
gress to break up the Union." — Hildreth's History of United 
States, Vol. IV., page 226. 

In 1813 Mr. Quincy, this same zealous secessionist and dis- 
unionist, was chairman of a committee in the Massachusetts Legis- 
lature, still pushing on secession plans. Mr. Quincy offered the fol- 
lowing resolution^ which was adopted: 

"Resolved, That the act passed the 8th day of April, 1812, 
entitled, 'An Act for the admission of the State of Louisiana 
into the Union and to extend the laws of the United States 
to said State,' is a violation of the United States Constitution, 
and that the Senators of the State of Massachusetts be in- 
structed, and the Represenatives thereof be requested to 
use their endeavor to obtain the repeal of the same." 

Governor Strong, of Massachusetts, wanted New England to 
secede from the Union, and after secession schemes were stopped 
by the glorious ending of the second war with Great Britain, won 
by Southern soldiers under the immortal Jackson, Governor 
Strong, to console himself and his friends, said : 

"Even though New England has failed to break the 
Union, the Western States ere long of themselves will get 
out of the Union. We then will be happy neighbors, whereas 
in a Union will always be friction." 

The reader may have observed in some of the foregoing ex- 
tracts references made to Massachusetts' jealousy. Bancroft, the 
historian, himself a son of Massachusetts, said of his mother 
State : 

"An ineradical dread of the coming power of the South 
and West lurked in New England, especially in Massachu- 
setts." 

Jealousy owes its life to selfishness ; it is a mean quality of 
which every large mind is ashamed ; when its origin is generally 
known, even those affected with jealousy will strive to suppress 
or at least hide it. 

A sample of New England's jealousy in this way may be 
found in Mr. Rives' "Life of Madison." Rives states that in the 
convention which framed the Constitution, Mr. Gouverneur 
Morris, delegate from Pennsylvania, was made spokesman for 
the Eastern States. Mr. Morris said: 



Chap. i8 Facts and Falsehoods. 



125 



"I look forward to that range of States which will soon 
be formed in the West. These new States will know less of 
the public interests than the old, will have interests in many 
respects different. It must be apparent they will not be 
able to furnish men equally as enlightened as the Eastern 
men to share in the administration of the common interest. 
If the Western States get power in their hands they will ruin 
the Atlantic States' interests. I think the rule of representa- 
tion ought to be so fixed as to secure to the Atlantic States 
the prevalence in the national council. This will provide a 
defense to the Northeast." 

Mr. Gouverneur Morris never thought of providing a de- 
fense of the Western States against Eastern greed of power 
and money. Mr. King and Mr. Gerry, of Massachusetts, took 
up the subject, repeating the alarm sounded by Mr. Morris. 
Mr. Gerry said : 

"If the Western States acquire power they will abuse it ; 
they will draw our wealth into the Western country and 
oppose commerce." 

One of the charges New England repeatedly made against 
the South was that she opposed commerce. This supposed oppo- 
sition, was used to excuse their desire to secede from the Union 
and form a Northeastern Confederacy. These jealous and selfish 
men submitted to the convention the following propo.sal : 

"Whatever may be the future population of the new 
States in the West, the total number of their representatives 
shall not exceed the total number of representatives of the 
old States." 

The men from Virginia firmly opposed this proposition: 
"The new States of the West," argued Colonel Mason, 
of Virginia, "must be treated as equals and subjected to no 
degrading discrimination. They will have the same 
pride and other passions we have, and will probably revolt 
from the Union if they are not in all respects placed on an 
equal footing with the Eastern States." 

Mr. Madison said: 

"I am clear and firm in the opinion that no unfavorable 

distinction should be made between the Atlantic and the 

Western States, either in policy or justice." 

The proposition of the Eastern men was put to a vote: 
Yeas — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware. 



126 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 19 

Nays — Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia. 
Pennsylvania was divided. 

Judge, oh, you men of the West ! which section, New England 
or the South, displayed the higher sense of justice? Less selfish 
greed for power? But for the resistance of Virginia's freedom- 
loving men. Mason and Madison, the limbs of the infant Her- 
cules of the West would have been so bound by the men of the 
East, the West would have been crippled and cramped for life, 
or would have broken its bonds asunder and by its sword won 
equality. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Contains Further Evidence Proving New England's Secession 
and Disunion Sentiments — Her Eagerness to Sever the 
Union in Tzi'aiu. 

The extracts given in Chapter XVIII. are mostly from S. D. 
Carpenter's Logic of History; a few are from the Democratic 
Handbook. As the case of the South versus the Republican party 
will ere long be taken into posterity's court for final judgment, I 
trust the reader will find the evidence bearing on this case of suffi- 
cient interest to read the following extracts, taken from Mr. E. 
P. Powell's work, "Nullification and Secession:" 

Extracts. 

"When the United States declared war in 1812 against 
Great Britain the Federalists in Congress issued an address 
to the people of New England declaring the war needless and 
unwise. The Massachusetts House of Representatives 
promptly voted an address denouncing the war as a wanton 
sacrifice of New England's interests, and calling for town 
meetings to denounce the war. The address to the people : 

" 'Let the sound of your disapprobation of this war be 
loud and deep ; let there be no volunteers except for defensive 
war.' " 

"This," remarks Mr. Powell, "at the very outset was 
practical secession from the Union." 

"Every possible hindrance was thrown in the way of 
securing enlistments for the army. Those who did enlist were 
arrested on real or fictitious charges of debt, and the courts 
cheerfull}' insisted that 'while a man was debtor he was the 



Chap. 19 Facts and Falsehoods. 127 

property of the creditor and could not be allowed to leave the 
State.' " 

Governor Griswald of Connecticut declared he did not be- 
lieve the militia of that State could be ordered to obey a Continen- 
tal officer. The Legislature of Connecticut resolved that the con- 
duct of His Excellency the Governor in refusing to order the 
militia of this State into the service of the United States on the 
requisition of the Secretary of War, met with the entire approba- 
tion of the Assembly. 

"The South and West were overwhelmingly loyal to the 
Union ; the Southern people were devoted to the Union. The 
Federalists declared it was capable of proof 'that Madison 
and Jefferson were in league with Napoleon.' The clergy 
preached and the politicians orated in the same strain. As 
1812 drew toward a close the condition of affairs was pitiful. 
Madison in his message spoke warmly of the course taken by 
New England, as practically destroying the Union ; instead of 
one nation we were acting as two in the face of the enemy. 
He defined the war as an expression of our determination to 
compel England to formally renounce the right of impress- 
ment of sailors on American ships. Along the ocean coast 
the British had adopted a war of incursion, plunder and the 
torch. They had burned several towns in Connecticut and 
elsewhere, had occupied Washington, driven out the Govern- 
ment and burned the capitol. Everywhere a determined front 
of the people was seen except in the East. No son of New 
England can remember without pain and shame the record 
of that section." 

With how much more pain and shame ought New England 
to remember her course toward the South in the years of the 6o's ? 
The South only acted on the principles of secession New Eng- 
land had openly taught from the hour she entered the Union, yet, 
more savage than any enraged tiger, New England turned on the 
South, shouting rebel ! traitor ! traitor ! rebel ! and when Lincoln 
let slip the dogs of war, as they bounded southward. New Eng- 
land sicked them on to greater fury, crying, "On, Lion ! On, Tiger ! 
On, Wolf ! Tear ! Rend ! Devour !" 

Unlike New England, the South did not choose a time to 
secede when it could hurt the Union. New England deliberately 
and of set purpose deferred secession until the Union was in the 
throes of war with a powerful enemy. 

It was stated at that time that — 



128 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 19 

"Two-thirds of the army in Canada are at this moment 
eating beef provided by American (New England) contract- 
ors. The road to St. Reges is covered with droves of cattle 
and the river with rafts, destined for the English. 'Were it 
not for these supplies,' wrote General Isard to the Secretary 
of War, 'the British forces would soon suffer a famine.' In 
return Old England exempted Massachusetts, Connecticut 
and New Hampshire from blockade." 

"The Federalists now discussed the plan of withdrawing 
all New England troops to their own soil. Governor Critten- 
den of Vermont issued orders to Vermont regiments in New 
York to return home. The officers read the proclamation to 
the troops ; all of them united in sending back word to Crit- 
tenden that they would not obey him. 'We are/ said they, 
'in the service of the United States, and your power over us 
is suspended until we are discharged. We regard your proc- 
lamations with mingled emotions of pity and contempt.' " 
After Lawrence's splendid sea fight the whole nation held a 
holiday, but the Massachusetts Legislature passed a resolution 
that— 

"It does not become a religious people to express any 
approbation of military or naval exploits not immediately 
defensive." 

"This was twaddle," remarks Powell. It was worse 
than twaddle. It was an effort to throw a religious cloak 
over a mean, contemptible act. 

"The proposition was discussed of forming a separate 
treaty of peace with Great Britain." 

"The Governor of Connecticut in August withdrew all 
the State militia from the command of national officers. New 
England was practically in rebellion. It had seceded from 
united national action, and had set up a new Confederacy. 
Governor Strong called the Legislature and said to them: 
'The national Government has failed to protect Massachu- 
setts from invasion or attack ; we must henceforth look to 
God and ourselves.' He more than hinted that the time had 
come for separate New England alliances." 

"The Boston Centinel declared the Union was as good 
as dissolved." 

"The very day that dispatches from Ghent announced the 
peace proposals of England, the Massachusetts Legislature 
issued a call for a conference of New En^^land States to be 
held at Hartford. Connecticut and Rhode Island promptly 



Chap. 19 Facts and Falsehoods. 129 

responded. The Boston Centinel spoke of Massachusetts, 
Connecticut and Rhode Island as the first three pillars in a 
new Federal edifice. It was proposed to make a special and 
separate treaty of peace with England. In the conference at 
Hartford there were thirty-six delegates, representing not 
only the three States named, but parts of Vermont and New 
Hampshire. Governor Morris wrote: 

"If not too tame and timid, you will be hailed hereafter 
as the patriots and sages of your generation." 

"It was proposed in the Hartford convention that New 
England should create State armies for self-defense." 

"The Massachusetts Legislature, in session at Boston, 
passed a resolution to send a delegation to demand the taxes, 
as proposed by the Hartford convention. Governor Strong 
undertook at once to raise a State army and in every way 
to create an independent commonwealth. It was proposed to 
seize the national taxes. At the same time Massachusetts 
refused to co-operate with the Union Government in driving 
the British from Maine." 

"Jackson reached New Orleans in time. He swept 
hindrances out of the way with a high hand, and then nearly 
annihilated the British. The victory was complete. Mean- 
while at Ghent had been signed the most extraordinary 
treaty England ever executed. Beginning with high and 
lofty demands, her commissioners had been crowded by the 
Americans to yield at one point and another until we had 
won a triumph of diplomacy greater than our triumphs at 
arms. 

"The points first demanded by England were that Amer- 
ica must yield all the Northwest, including >.Tichigan, Wi«5- 
consin, Illinois, a large part of Indiana, and one-third of 
Ohio, as a perpetual Indian Territory, a barrier between Can- 
ada and the United States ; that we must renounce our right 
to keep armed vessels on the lakes or military posts on the 
shores, and thirdly, we must relinquish a considerable portion 
of Maine to be British property. These terms the members 
of the Hartford convention and the foremost men of New 
England declared were just and liberal. The rest of the 
States indignantly spurned the proposals. Adams wrote to 
Madison to continue the war forever rather than yield one 
acre of territory or the fisheries or impressments. 

"New England, by election, resolutions and conventions, 



130 ■ Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 19 

had declared all the British demands were just, and to grant 
them would be political wisdom. 

"Peace was declared, but not one single British demand 
had been yielded. The war had been fought under terrible 
disadvantages (fought by Democrats drawn from the South 
and West), but it had accomplished more permanent ad- 
vantages to civilization than any other two years' war in 
history. It made the oceans a vast republic. It established 
the freedom of the seas. It established the great doctrine of 
individual rights." — Powell's Nullification and Secession. 

Of Massachusetts' treacherous course Jefferson wrote to 
General Dearborn : "Oh Massachusetts ! how have I lament- 
ed the degradation of your apostacy — Massachusetts, with 
whom I worked with pride in 1776! If her humiliation can 
just give her modesty enough to suppose that her Southern 
brethren are somewhat on a par with her in wisdom, in infor- 
mation, in patriotism, in bravery, even in honesty, she will 
more justly estimate her relative momentum in the Union." 

For Massachusetts, modesty was not possible. Too long she 
had been teaching herself that she was the most virtuous and 
intellectual State in the Union, if not in the world. Even in her 
youth she had conceitedly drawn close about her a robe of self- 
righteousness and said to the South and West, "Stand back! I 
am holier than thou." 

New England had so long calumniated Southern people, 
calumniation had become a sort of craze with her. It is quite 
possible that she had come to believe her own falsehoods. While 
using slavery as a weapon to beat down the Union, the people of 
the South, the Democratic party she hated, now and then she 
managed to get possession of some negro, who may or may not 
have been cruelly abused by his master, and she made use of that 
negro to charge every man and woman in the South with cruelty. 

It never occurred to her to remember that as good a charge 
of cruelty could be brought against every husband in America 
because now and then some husband cruelly abused his wife, beat 
or choked her to death. Even in 1796, while still engaged in the 
slave traffic, while still bringing cargoes of negroes from Africa 
and sending them South to be sold to rice and cotton planters, 
this self-righteous New England had the gall to proclaim the ly- 
ing charge that the people of the South were barbarians, were a 



Chap. 20 Facts and Falsehoods. 131 

"race of demons," and would "enjoy killing and eating negroes 
if they liked the taste of black flesh" — eating negroes they, the 
pious Puritans of New England, had stolen from Africa and 
brought to this Western continent! 



CHAPTER XX. 

New England's Three Hates Still Active. The Republican Party 

is Organised, 1854. Republican Historians not Trustiuorthy. 
Ambassador CJioate bears False Witness. Senator Sumner's 
Curious Lapse. A Few Facts Uncovered. 

Notwithstanding all the evidence we have given, and as much 
more staring the seeker of historic truth in the face, it now suits 
Republican writers to assert that the people of the Northern 
States always had held that secession is a political crime, always 
had abhorred disunion, always had felt that a higher allegiance 
was due to the Union Government than to that of their own States. 
Republicans persist in the assertion that South Carolina was 
"the breeding place of secession and that secession was and is 
a leprosy of the mind more loathsome than leprosy of the body." 
In "Nullification and Secession" the author makes the statement 
that— 

"From the day of our great victory over Great Britian, 
in 181 5, New England became among the faithful most faith- 
ful to the Union." 

On what evidence Mr. Powell based this statement does not 
appear ; it certainly is far from fact. New England continued to 
hold her three hates, each one as strong, black and bitter, as be- 
fore the war of 1812. Her hate of the Union had not for a 
moment ceased or softened ; her hate of Democracy and of the 
people of the South because they were Democrats was as unre- 
lenting as ever ; her desire to sever the Union was as strong as 
ever. New England experienced no change of heart, as will be 
seen from the extracts I shall now lay before the reader. Ample 
proof exists that New England was as eager as ever for disunion. 
On the 24th of February, 1842, John Quincy Adams presented 
£ petition in the House of Representatives, signed by a largi 
number of citizens of Haverhill, Mass., for a peaceable dissolution 
of the Union, assigning as one of the reasons the inequality of 
benefits conferred upon the different sections. 

See Blake's History of Slavery, page 524. 

And Carpenter's Logic of History, page 26. 



132 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 20 

"On the 28th of February, 1842, Mr. Joshua R. Gid- 
dings, member of Congress from Ohio, presented a petition 
from a large number of citizens of Austinburg in his district, 
praying for a dissolution of the Union. Mr. Triplett of Ken- 
tucky, who considered the petition disrespectful to both 
Houses, moved that it be not received. Ayes 24 for reception. 
Noes 116." (See Blake's History of Slavery, page 529.) 

The following extract, page 145, from one of a series of 
pamphlets issued for circulation in Massachusetts in 1852, shows 
New England's unabated animosity to the Union : 

"Fidelity to the cause of human freedom and allegiance 
to God require that the existing national compact should be 
instantly dissolved ; that secession from the Government is a 
religious and a political duty." 

In another paragraph of this same paper is the following em- 
phatic declaration : "To continue this disastrous alliance longer is 
madness." In 1854 the dismembered Federals of New England and 
the disorganized Whigs united and iormed the Republican party. 
These old disunionists under their new name took up the fight 
on the three objects of New England's hate — Democracy, the 
Union and the South — exactly where the Federals had ceased their 
open fight in 181 5. So far from New England's sentiments 
having softened since that time, her three hates, under the lead of 
Republicans, assumed the force and fury of insanity, as may be 
seen in reports of speeches, sermons and lectures. Men of New 
England who emigrated West carried with them all three hates, 
and when the Republican party was organized they made haste to 
enter its ranks and take up the work of disunion and secession. 
These men of the new party possessed more zeal, more audacity, 
more duplicity and less candor than their progenitors, the Fed- 
orals. These latter had always fought Democracy in the open ; 
the more astute Republicans saw that they could never win the 
suffrages of the common people if they exposed their imperialistic 
features, therefore from the day of their organization they fought 
behind a mask. The Republican party never at any period took 
the people into their confidence. But they affected high moral 
ideas and benevolent principles, which won many to their ranks. 
The old Federals had always spoken of negroes in contemptuous 
terms. Republicans saw what an engine of power they could 
make of slavery to batter, beat down and cover with false charges 
and malignant calumnies the three objects of their hatred, and 



Chap. 20 Facts and Falsehoods. 



133 



most effective use they made of that engine. They either forgot or 
ignored the fact that their own New England States were chiefly 
responsible for the existence of that black curse on this Western 
continent. Men of Massachusetts scrupled at no subterfuge, no 
deception, no falsehood, in efforts to make the world believe their 
own States were and ever had been free from the sin of slavery. 
They pushed back out of sight the hideous fact that Massachu- 
setts men had built ships and sent them to Africa to bring back 
cargoes of negroes, which they sold either in the West Indies, the 
Bermudas or to Southern planters. The dreadful word, "Middle 
Passage/' with all its horrors, was seldom or never uttered or 
written by a Massachusetts man. Men of New England affected 
to believe only the Southern States were guilty of the sin of 
slavery. Lecturers, historians and senators joined in this decep- 
tive work, and to this day falsehoods are told on this subject. In- 
stance the address delivered by Ambassador to England Choate 
a few months ago to the Philosophic Society of Edinburg, Scot- 
land. Branching off from the main line of his address, Ambassa- 
dor Choate seized the occasion to enlighten the members of that 
philosophical society on the subject of slavery in America. 

"Negro slavery," said the Ambassador, "was firmly estab- 
lished in the Southern States at an early period of their his- 
tory. In 1619 a Dutch ship discharged a cargo of African 
slaves at Jamestown, Virginia. All through the colonial 
period their importation continued. A few negroes found 
their way up into the Northern States." 

This is the way New England men "make and take their 
history." "A fezv negroes found their way up into the Northern 
States," and this from a descendant of Puritans who carried on 
the slave traffic, importing negroes from Africa for over a hun- 
dred years. The careful way Ambassador Choate phrases his 
sentences to make them bear false witness is something to wonder 
at, and the dishonesty involved is something to blush for. What 
are the plain facts of history? 

A Dutch ship did stop at Jamestown in 161 9 and leave, not 
a cargo, but eleven slaves, not one of which remained on Virginia 
soil. Those eleven negro slaves had been brought from the Earl 
of Warwick's plantation, on the Isle of Summers, one of the Ber- 
mudas. Their owner, the Earl of Warwick, had them carried 
back as soon as possible to his plantation on the Isle of Summers. 

If the importation of negroes continued all during the colo- 
nial period, New England ships carried on that importation, and 



134 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 20 

New England State kept up that importation until the year 1808. 
Massachusetts went into the slave traffic as early as 1637. Chief 
Justice Parsons declared from the bench that — 

"Slavery was introduced into Massachusetts soon after 
its first settlement." 

Is it possible that Ambassador Choate is ignorant of these 
facts ? 

George H. Moore, L. L. D., librarian of the New York His- 
torical Society, afterwards superintendent of the Lenox Library, 
in "Notes on History of Slavery in Massachusetts," says : 

"I charge nearly all the orators, historians, lawyers, 
clergymen and statesmen of Massachusetts with either igno- 
rance of the facts of history or evading and falsifying them." 

Mr. George W. Williams, Judge Advocate of the Grand 
Army of the Republic of Ohio, in his "History of the Negro Race 
in America," calls attention to the above charges of Mr. Moore 
and comments thus: 

"Despite the indisputable evidence of the legalized exist- 
ence of slavery in Massachusetts, the historians, lawyers, 
clergymen, orators and statesmen of New England continue 
to assert that slavery, though it did creep into the colony of 
Massachusetts and did exist, it was not by force of any law, 
as none such is known to have existed." 

Moore says : "Massachusetts' first code of laws established 
slavery in that colony, and, at the very birth of the foreign 
commerce of New England, the African slave trade became a 
regular business." 

Yet in spite of indisputable evidence, showing that New 
England from 1637 to 1808 was actively engaged in the slave 
traffic, and that New England ships brought over cargoes of ne- 
groes from Africa, discharged those left alive from the horrors 
of the "Middle Passage" at New England ports, there to recuper- 
ate before sending them South to be sold to the cotton and rice 
planters, in spite of all this evidence. Ambassador Choate had the 
hardihood to represent to his Scotch audience that the Northern 
States were guiltless of the sin of slavery, and only a "few negroes 
found their zvay up to Northern States." On June 28, 1854, 
Charles Sumner, a son of Massachusetts, from the Senate floor, 
made the false assertion that — 

"In all her annals no person was ever born a slave on 
the soil of Massachusetts." 

I charge that men making such assertions were a-nd are 



CHAf. Ji Facts and Falsehoods. 135 

either disgracefully ignorant of the facts of history or disgrace- 
fully dishonest. 

In Elliott's "Debates in the Convention of 1787," Vol. I, pages 
264-5, "^'^y ^^ found the following story illustrative of Massachu- 
setts character : 

"The original committee of thirteen in 1787 recommend- 
ed that the constitutional license to the slave traffic should 
cease at the period of 1800." 

This not suiting some of New England's States at that time 
engaged in the slave traffic, it was moved and seconded to amend 
the report of the committee of eleven, entered on the journal of 
August 21, 1787, as follows: 

"To strike out the words eighteen hundred and insert 
the words eighteen hundred and eight." 

"This motion was seconded ; the vote stood as follows : 

"Yeas — New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, 
Maryland, North and South Carolina, Georgia." 

"Nays — New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Vir- 
ginia." (See Carpenter's Logic of History.) 

By this it is seen that Massachusetts and two other New Eng- 
land States, by their votes, procured the continuance of the dam- 
nable slave traffic eight years longer than Virginia wanted it to 
continue. 

Dr. Dabney of Virginia states that it is estimated that in the 
years from 1787 to 1808 new England's slave ships brought from 
Africa and sold either to the South's planters or in the West 
Indies one million slaves. Yet from that year, 1787, from the 
very hour New England's three States voted to continue the slave 
traffic, Massachusetts has held close about her her robe of self- 
righteousness, scornfully saying to Virginia, "Stand back! I am 
holier than thou !" 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Save the Union, Free Slaves the Pretext, Not the Purpose, of 
the War on the South. Real Cause, Hatred of Democracy. 
Mr, A. K. Fisk, a distinguished Republican, throws some 
light on the relationship of the two parties, Hamilton's and 
Jefferson's ; in other words, the party favoring Monarchy and the 
party favoring Democracy, the rule of the people. 



136 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 21 

"Hamilton and Jefferson," says Fisk in the North Amer- 
ican Revieiv of April, 1879, page 410, "represent the two 
opposing ideas which prevailed at the time our Government 
was formed, and which, with some variations, have been the 
basis of our political divisions into parties ever since, and 
have been involved in all the contests and controversies in 
our constitutional career. Hamilton embodied the tendency 
to a centralization of power in the national Government. 
There is no doubt that he would have preferred a monarchy. 
Jefferson, on the other hand, represented the demand for a 
complete diffusion of sovereignty among the people, and its 
exercise locally and in the States, and the confining of nation- 
al functions as closely as possible under the most restrictive 
interpretation of the Constitution." 

Mr. Fisk admits that Hamilton, the monarchist, represented 
the party which opposed the sovereignty of the people. A writer 
in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, a staunch advocate of Hamil- 
ton's strong government doctrines, in that paper, March 6, 1898, 
made this significant comment : 

"The resemblance between Hamilton and Lincoln is so 
close no one can resist it. Hamilton is dwarfed by no man. 
A just parallel of Hamilton and Lincoln will show them 
alike in many ways. They were alike almost to the point of 
identity, Hamilton's work made Lincoln's possible." 

Hamilton's monarchic principles certainly made Lincoln's 
work possible. Lincoln put in practice what Hamilton had ad- 
vocated. Hamilton made no concealment of his monarchic prin- 
ciples ; he preferred a monarchy such as England has, but failing 
that he wanted a President for life and the Governors of States 
appointed by the President. LTntil seated in the White House, 
Lincoln talked Democracy and affected great esteem for Jeffer- 
son's Democratic principles. 

As soon as he held in his grip Ihe machinery of government, 
he schemed for absolute power, and as soon as he was command- 
er in chief of nearly 3,000,000 armed men, no imperial despot in 
pagan time ever wielded more autocratic power than did Abraham 
Lincoln, and Republican writers of today are so imbued with 
imperialism they laud and glorify Lincoln for his usurpation of 
power. 

Although well informed Republicans know that the war on 
the South was waged neither to save the Union nor to free 
slaves, it does not suit that party to be candid on this subject. 



Chap. 21 Facts and Falsehoods. 137 

Now and then, however, some Republican forgets the party's 
policy of secrecy and tells the truth. That boldly imperialistic 
Republican journal, the Globe-Democrat, of St. Louis, in its issue 
of April 9, 1900, had an article which uncovers facts, even to the 
foundation stones, on which rested the war of the 60's. Consider 
the following: 

"Lincoln, Grant and the Union armies gave a victory 
to Hamiltonism (Monarchy) when it subjugated the Confed- 
erates (Democrats) in the South. (This is strictly true; it 
was a victory over Democracy by Monarchy.) The cardi- 
nal doctrines of Democracy are the enlargement of the power 
of the States. All the pridigious energies of the war could 
not extinguish these. The lesson of the war was extreme 
and extraordinary, and yet in a sense ineffective." 

Ineffective, because it did not crush out the very life of 
Democracy. Monarchists always appear to be ignorant of the 
fact that there is a streak of divinity in Democracy which can not 
be killed. Monarchy a thousand and ten thousand times has 
fancied it has forever put an end to Democracy, but sooner or 
later it rises up, fronts and fights for the rights of humanity with 
all its power. 

"The Democrats," continues iheGlobe-Democrat, "have 
been since the war more strenuous than before in insisting 
on the preservation of the power of the States." 

The cardinal doctrine of the Democratic party has not been, 
since the formation of the Union, the enlargement of State power, 
but has been the preservation of the power reserved to the 
States by the Constitution. The cardinal power of the Repub- 
lican party, since the day Mr. Lincoln assumed the Presidency, has 
been the enlargement of executive power. No well-informed 
man can deny this. 

"If there was no absurd sentiment," says the Globe-Dem- 
ocrat, "about the privileges of the States there would be no 
campaign on imperialism." 

Had there been no absurd "sentiment" about human freedom 
in 1776 there would have been no campaign against the English 
King. 

"Back of all opposition," continues the Globe-Democrat, 
"tp imperialism, whatever form it takes, is the old doctrine 



138 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 21 

that the rights reserved by the Constitution to the States are 
toeing invaded." 

This is strctly true. What shadow of right had or has im- 
periaHsts to encroach on the rights reserved by the Constitution 
to the States? Such encroachment is an audacious usurpation of 
power and a dishonest violation of the original contract between 
the States and the Federal Union. 

"The old Federals," says the Globe-Democrat, "fought 
it (Democracy) valiantly, but it was reserved ^for the Repub- 
lican party to conquer it." 

Had the Republican party fought in the open, as did the 
old Federals, it never would have defeated Democracy. Had it 
fought in the open, exposing its monarchic principles, the people 
of the Northern States never w^ould have aided it to crush and 
conquer Democracy, From its birth in 1854, the Republican party 
has fought behind a mask. Its imperial features have never been 
uncovered and exposed to the people's gaze. It has ever posed 
before the people as the champion of the people's rights. 

The following extracts, mostly taken from S. D. Carpenter's 
Logic of History, show New England's continued hate of the 
Union. In Massachusetts' State convention, 1851, it was — 

"Resolved, That the one issue before the country is dis- 
solution of the Union, in comparison with which all other 
issues are as dust in the balance ; therefore, we have given 
ourselves to the work of annulling this covenant with death." 
In 1856 Lloyd Garrison in a speech loudly declared: 
"I have said, and I say again, that in proportion to the 
growth of disunion will be the growth of the Republican 
cause. This Union is a lie!" 

James S. Pike, appointed Minister to the Netherlands, said: 

"This Union is not worth supporting in connection with 
the South." 

Frederick Douglas, half negro, half white, a great man in 
the Republican party, in a speech said : 

"From this time forth I consecrate the labor of my life 
to the dissolution of the Union, and I care not whether the 
bolt that rends it shall come from heaven or from hell !" 

Loud and long applause. 

These were the sentiments, so far as I can learn, of every 
man in the Republican party. 



Chap. 21 Facts and Falsehoods. 139 

The Rev. Andrew T, Foss, at a meeting in New York, May 
15th, 1857, said: 

"There never has been an hour when this infamous Union 
should have been made, and now the hour has to be prayed 
for when it shall be dashed to pieces forever! I hate the 
Union !" 

In 1850 Wm. Lloyd Garrison, in a speech, shouted out with 
p^reat vehemence : 

"A thousand times accursed be this Union!" 
Eli Thayer, in "Kansas Crusade," says : 

"These men of New England were the original seces- 
sionists. They had advocated secession and dissolution of 
the Union for twenty years before Jefferson Davis put those 
doctrines in practice." 

Mr. Thayer makes a mistake by fully forty years. The men 
of New England first, as Federalists, had preached disunion and 
secession from 1796 up to the very hour the Republican party 
took up the work in 1854. The reader must not lose sight of the 
fact that the Republican party is the legitimate offspring of the 
Federals, and had inherited all its progenitor's faiths, ambitions 
and hates. 

The genesis is straight, as follows : 

Federals in 1796 — 1804 — 1814. 

Federal-Republican in 1824. 

Republican in 1854. 

Union-Republican from the beginning of the war to its 
close. 

In 1855 Senator Wade of Ohio, at a mass meeting in Maine, 
in a grand passion of scorn and hate of the Union, threw his arms 
out wide and shouted: 

"Let us sweep away this remnant which we call a 
Union." 

In another speech Wade cried out: 

"After all this talk of a Union you have no Union worthy 
the name." 

After the first State had seceded. Wendell Phillips cired out 
rapturously : 

"Disunion is the sweetest music I What if a State has no 
right to secede? Of what consequence is that? A Union is 
made up of willing States, not of conq.uerors and conquered. 
Confederacies invariably tend to dism-emberment. The 



I40 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 21 

Union was a wall built up hastily; its cement has crumbled 
hastily. Why should we seek to stop seceded States ? Merely 
to show we can ? Let the South go in peace." 

Alas ! Alas ! This just spirit did not remain with Phillips. Did 
the smell of blood from battlefields gangrene his mind and heart? 
As the war went on there came times when Mr. Phillips' hate of 
the South seemed to hurt him so, he cried out in spasms of pain, 
as when in a speech in Beecher's church his hate became so acute 
and frenzied he demanded the exile or hanging at one fell swoop 
of 347,000 men of the South. Before Phillips became poisoned by 
the smell of blood he had boldly declared the South's right to 
independence, right to secede, and as boldly had warned President 
Lincoln that he had no right to send one armed man on the 
South. 

In another speech, full of. insane hate of the South, Phillips 
said: 

"Washington was a sinner ! It becomes an American 
to cover his face when he places Washington's bust among 
the great men of the world." 

Redman, a friend and follower of Phillips, had the hate in- 
sanity as badly as Phillips. 

"And I," shouted Redman, "would like to spit on that 
scoundrel, Washington." 

It is quite possible that both these men had come to believe 
so strongly in their own self-righteousness as to think they hated 
Washington because he had been a slave-holder. It never oc- 
curred to them to remember the sins of their own Massachusetts 
ancestors, their long continued traffic in slaves. 

The True American, a Republican paper of Erie, Penn., said : 
"All this twaddle about preserving the Union is too silly 
and sickening for anything." 

August 23d, 1 85 1, the New Hampton, Massachusetts, Ga- 
zette announced that a petition was circulating in that region for 
the dissolution of the Unon, and that more than one hundred and 
fifty names of legal voters had signed it. In 1854 New England 
sent to Congress a petition, numerously signed, praying for the 
dissolution of the Union, using these words: 

"We earnestly request Congress to take measures for 
the speedy, peaceful and equitable dissolution of the Union." 

In 1854 John P. Hale, Chase and Seward voted to receive 
and, consider a petition demanding the dissolution of the Union. 



Chap. 21 Facts and Falsehoods. 141 

These three men had long been anxious to break the Union to 
pieces. 

In 1848 Seward voted to receive a petition to dissolve the 
Union, yet Seward was the man who urged Lincoln to begin war, 
on the pretext of saving the Union. In 1857 a meeting was held 
in Massachusetts, during which the question of war on the South 
was discussed. Gerritt Smith, an ardent disunion Republican, 
said: 

"The time has not yet come to use physical force on the 
South." 

Mr. Langdon of Ohio in a speech said: 

"Why preserve the Union? It is not worth preserving. 
I hate the Union as I hate hell !" 

Carpenter's Logic of History says in 1852 a series of pam- 
phlets were issued advocating disunion, from which is taken the 
following : 

"To longer continue this disastrous alliance (the Union) 
is madness. Allegiance to God and fidelity to the cause of 
freedom requires that the national compact shall be in- 
stantly dissolved. Secession from the Government is a relig- 
ious and political duty." 

Joshua R. Giddings, one of the Republican great men, in 1848 
introduced a petition for the dissolution of the Union. Mr. Lin- 
coln appointed Mr. Giddings Consul to the Canadas. 

Anson Burlingame so hated the Union and the Constitution 
he declared publicly that "we needed disunion, we needed a new 
Constitution, a new Bible, and a new God." Mr. Lincoln was so 
pleased with Mr. Burlingame he sent him Minister to China, at 
the same time pretending to look on disunion as the most mon- 
strous crime a people can commit, and to punish which he was 
devastating the South with an army of over 2,000,000 men. 

At a Republican convention, held at Monroe, Green county, 
AWsconsin, in 1856. the following resolution was passed: 

"Resolved, That it is the duty of the North, in case we 
fail in electing a President and Congress that will restore 
freedom to Kansas, to revolutionize the Government." 

The Boston Liberator had an article headed in large type ; 
"But one issue ! The dissolution of the Union," and 
urges the people to get up monster petitions to Congress for 
dissolution of the Union." (See Carpenter's Logic of His- 
tory.) 



142 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 21 

In his debate, 1858, with Parson Pryne, Parson Brownlow, a 
red hot Republican, said: 

"A dissohition of the Union is what a large portion of 
the Republicans are driving at." 

In 1855, only one year after the Republican party was or- 
ganized, Senator Wade, of Ohio, in a speech made in Portland, 
Maine, said : 

"There is really no Union now between the North and 
the South. I believe no two nations on earth entertain feel- 
ings of more bitter rancor toward each other than these two 
peoples." 

Wm. Lloyd Garrison said : 

"The Republican party is moulding public sentiment in 
the right direction for the dissolution of the Union." 

Charles Sumner was heart and soul a disunionist. In 1854, 
September 7th, at Worcester, Massachusetts, in a speech Sumner 
said : 

"The whole dogma of passive obedience to law must be 
rejected, in whatever guise it may assume and under what- 
ever alias it may skulk, whether in the tyranny and usurpation 
of king, parliament or judicial tribunal." 

On November 2d, 1859, in a speech made in Brooklyn, Wen- 
dell Phillips made the following remarkable assertion : 

"Virginia is not a State! Mr. Wise is not a Governor! 
The Union is not a nation ! All these so-called Governments 
are organized piracies." (Logic of History, page 68.) 

The New York Herald of December, 1859, gives an account 
of a Republican meeting in Tremont Temple, Boston. The Hon. 
John Andrews, afterwards Governor of Massachusetts, said: 

"The logic of bayonets and rifles and pikes will be hence- 
forth used against the South." 

Emerson, the so-called New England philosopher, was at 
that meeting and said : 

"We must go back to the original form ; in other words, 
go back to the original right of resistance and revolution, 
and nullify the Constitution and the laws." 

General Jamison, on January 22, 1862, made a speech to his 

soldiers, which was published in the Leavenworth Conservative, 
in which he said : 



Chap. 21 Facts and Falsehoods. 143 

"This is a war 'which dates way back of Fort Sumter ; 
ever since 1854 we have been making" the long campaign." 

The Republican party was organized in 1854. General Jam- 
ison's knowledge of New England's history did not go back of 
that date ; he knew, as Wendell Phillips had proclaimed, that the 
Republican party was organized to work against the South, but 
apparently did not know that party merely took up the warfare 
its progenitors, the Federals, had been waging against the South 
since the year 1796. 

On December 25, i860, in the United States Senate, Stephen 
Douglas said: 

"The fact can no longer be disguised that many 
Republican Senators desire war and disunion under pretense 
of saving the Union. For partisan reasons they are anxious 
to destroy the Union. They want this done without holding 
them responsible before the people." 

The Boston Commomuealth, Senator Sumner's organ, said : 

"How dare any one pray for the preservation of that sin 
and shame, the Union?" 

In another issue that organ said : 

"Unity of the States is a crime ! May the tongue wither 
that prays for the preservation of that festering shame, 
the Union." 

In a convention held in Massachusetts in 1856, a series of res- 
ohitions were passed, of which the following are samples : 

"Resolved, ist, That the necessity of disunion is writ- 
ten in the whole existing character and condition of the two 
sections of the country. No government on earth is strong 
enough to hold together such opposing forces." 

The Roman Empire's government was strong enough to hold 
together for years, yet in time it broke to pieces. This imperial 
republican government sooner or later will do the same. The 
second resolution of that convention is as follows : 

"Resolved, 2d, That this movement does not merely seek 
disunion, but the expulsion by the Northern States from the 
Union of the Southern States. The one great issue before the 
country is the dissolution of the Union, in comparison with 
which all other issues are as dust in the balance ; therefore 
we devote ourselves to the work of annulling this covenant 
with death." 



144 



Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 21 



So long had the gospel of hate been preached, those New 
Englanders had come to hate the South so venomously they 
wanted to force her out of the Union she loved. Yet, when a 
few years later the Southern people left the Union, driven to 
secede by the unrelenting persecution of New England, these very 
people of New England called her secession a crime and waged 
upon her bloody war for doing what they had invited her to do, 
as will be seen from this item. 

In 1859, at a Republican convention in New York, the follow- 
ing resolution was unanimously passed: 

"Resolved, That we invite a free correspondence with the 
disunionists of the South, in order that we may decide upon 
the most suitable measures to bring about so desirable a re- 
sult." 

The New York Tribune, a Republican paper, edited by Hor- 
ace Greeley, native of New England, said : 

"Who wants a Union which is nothing but a sentiment to 
lacquer Fourth of July orations withal? We have no wish 
for its preservation." 

At a meeting in Faneuil Hall, Boston, January 2, 3, 4, 1854, 

it was — 

"Resolved, That we seek the dissolution of this Union, 
and that we hereby declare ourselves the friends of a new 
Confederacy of States, and for a dissolution of the Union." 

Wm. Lloyd Garrison, a son of New England, a great man 
in the Republican party, in a speech to a large audience cried 
aloud : 

"If the church is against disunion, I pronounce the 
church of the devil! Up with the flag of disunion!" 

In a speech made May, 1858, in New York city, Wendell 
Phillips declared that for the last nineteen years he had labored to 
get sixteen States out of the Union. When in 1856, February 25th, 
a friend said to Senator Hale, he was certain there would ere long 
be war with the South, Hale, eager for war, rubbed his hands and 
gleefully said : 

"Good ! Good ! War can't come to soon." 

The reader will observe that these Republicans were as anx- 
ious for a war on the South as their progenitors, the Federals, 
had been. In 1856, Banks of Massachusetts, in a speech at Port- 
land, Maine, said : 



Chap. 21 Facts and Falsehoods. 145 

"I am not one who cries for the perpetuation of the 
Union, I am willing to let it slide." 

Yet while Banks' party was drenching the Southland with 
blood and filling all the country, North and South, with mourning, 
under pretense of saving a Union it long had despised, this same 
Banks, with a general's epaulets on his shoulders, marched at the 
head of armed legions on the South to assist in the murderous 
work. In 1857, in the fair month of May, the Rev. Andrew 
Forbes shouted out : 

"There never was an hour when this blasphemous and 
infamous Union should have been made ; now the hour must 
be prayed for when it will be dashed to pieces." 

Does this evidence manifest any change of heart in New 
England ? Had she come to hate Democracy less ? Had she come 
to hate the Union less? The South less? Was she any better 
satisfied to remain in the Union ? Any less anxious to break it to 
pieces? Had she ceased to believe in State's sovereignty? In the 
right of States to secede ? Yet, in the face of the above evidence, 
Mr. E. P. Powell calmly announces that after "New England's 
shameless conduct during the second war with Great Britain she 
became of the faithful the most faithful to the Union." 

Was Mr. Powell afraid to tell the plain truth? 

A few extracts from the utterances of distinguished Repub- 
licans will show how they hated and detested the United States 
Constitution. 

In a speech to a large audience. Wendell Phillips cried out : 
"The Constitution is a mistake ! Tear it to pieces ! Our 

aim is disunion !'' 

Hincle, a Republican speaker, cried out in high scorn : 

"The United States Constitution ! I would blow it away 
as a child blows a feather!" 

At a meeting in Faneuil Hall, January 23d, 1850, it was — 

"Resolved, That we seek a dissolution of the Union ; and 
Resolved, That we do hereby declare ourselves the enemies of 
the Constitution, of the Union, and of the Government of the 
United States ; and Resolved, That we proclaim it as our un- 
alterable purpose and determination to live and labor for 
the dissolution of the present Union." 

The Boston Daily Mail, the New York Independent, the 
New York Herald, the Boston Times, and other papers, reported 



146 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 21 

these meetings and the speeches ; some papers condemned, some 
gibed, some called the speakers foolish fanatics, and dismissed 
the whole proceeding as absurd, but, so far as I can discover, not 
a paper called these men rebels, traitors, or their teachings trea- 
son. 

At a meeting in Boston, May, 1849, Wendell Phillips blazed 
out in these words : 

"We confess that we intend to trample on the Constitu- 
tion of this country. We of New England are not a law-abid- 
ing community, God be thanked for it ! We are disunionists ; 
we want to get rid of this Union." (Democratic Handbook, 
page 72.) 

At South Farmington, on July 5th, 1854. the United States 
Constitution was publicly burned. 

Mr. Seward despised the Constitution and called it a paper 
kite. 

Beecher jeeringly called the Constitution a sheep-skin Govern- 
ment. 

May 16, 1863, resolutions passed by the Essex County mass- 
meeting contained this : 

"Resolved, That the war prosecuted to preserve a Union 
and a Constitution which should never have existed and 
which should be at once overthrown, is but a wanton waste 
of property and a dreadful sacrifice of human life." 

Horace Greeley said : 

"All nations have their superstitions ; that of our people 
is the Constitution." 

Henry Ward Beecher said : 

"A great many people raise a cry about the Union and 
the Constitution. The truth is, it is the Constitution that is the 
trouble ; the Constitution has been the foundation of our 
trouble." 

The Boston Liberator, April 24, 1863, said: 

"No act of ours do we regard with higher satisfaction 
than when several years ago, on the 4th of July, in the pres- 
ence of a great assembly, we committed to the flames the Con- 
stitution of the United States and burned it to ashes." 

During Garfield's campaign, that outspoken Republican 
paper, the Lemars (la.) Sentinel, voiced Republican principles as 
follows : 



Chap. 21 Facts and Falsehoods. 147 

"The Stalwarts do not care a fig for the Constitution, and 
will trample it under foot today as did Lincoln and the Union 
hosts from '61 to '65. 

"The Constitution of the United States has been little 
beside a curse and a hindrance. It is so today as much as 
it has been at any time since it was framed. It is the barrier 
now to the pathway of the nation." 

The Wakefield (Kansas) Semi-Weekly, a Republican paper, 
in August, 1880, wanted to destroy the Constitution. 

"Let us," (said the Semi-Weekly) "tear up the present 
Constitution by the roots, wipe out the same and the laws 
and so-called Constitutions of every State in this Union. Let 
the Stalwarts now make their grand attack on the United 
States Senate, which is the bulwark of State sovereignty." 

Seward despised the Constitution, but was careful not to 
proclaim it to the people. Seward said to General Piatt : 

"We are all bound by tradition to the tail end of a 
paper kite called the Constitution. It is held up by a string." 

"Why, Mr. Senator," said Piatt, in some heat, "you don't 
believe that of our Constitution?" 

"I certainly do," replied Seward, "but I generally keep 
it to myself. Our Constitution is to us of the North a great 
danger. The Southerners are using it as a shield." 

The Constitution zvas a shield on which the South relied, but 
the Republican party overwhelmed the people who held that 
shield before their breasts ; seized that shield, dashed 
it on the ground and trampled it down in the bloody mire of 
battlefields. Lincoln, like all Republicans had no respect for the 
Constitution, but Lincoln was always too shrewd a lawyer to make 
public his real opinions. General Piatt relates the following storj, 
which illustrates Lincoln's want of reverence for the Constitution. 
When Amasa Walker, a distinguished New England financier, 
thought of a scheme by which could be filled the Government 
treasury, Mr. Davis Tailor went to Secretary Chase and laid be- 
fore him Amasa Walker's scheme. Chase heard him to the end 
and then said : 

"That is all very well, Mr. Tailor, but there is one little 

obstacle in the way which makes the plan impracticable, and 

that is the United States Constitution." 

Mr. Tailor then went to President Lincoln and laid the matter 
before him. 



148 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 21 

••Tailor," said Lincoln, "go back to Chase and tell him 
not to bother hinisell about the United States Constitution. 
Say that I have that sacred instrument here at the White 
House, and I am guarding it with great care." 

Chase, Tailor and Lincoln then held a conference. Chase 
explained how the scheme to raise money was a violation of the 
Constitution. Lincoln, after his usual habit, swept away Chase's 
statement of facts by a story: 

"Chase," said Lincoln, "down in Illinois I was held to be 
a pretty good lawyer ; now this thing reminds me of a story. 
An Italian captain run his vessel on a rock and knocked a 
hole in her bottom. He set his men to pumping and went 
to prayers before a figure of the Virgin Mary in the bow of 
the ship. The leak gained on them until it looked as if the . 
vessel would go down with all on board. Then the captain, 
in a fit of rage at not having his prayers answered, seized the 
figure of the Virgin Mary and threw it overboard. Suddenly 
the leak stopped, the water was pumped out and the vessel 
got safely into port. When docked for repairs the statue of 
the Virgin Mary was found stuck head foremost in the hole." 

Chase, who never liked Lincoln's stories, told the President 
he did not see the application of the story. 

"Why, Chase," returned Lincoln, "I didn't intend pre- 
cisely to throw the Virgin Mary overboard — by that I mean 
the Constitution — But I will stick it into the hole if I can." 
And he did stick it in the hole. The Iowa editor told the 
tale more tersely, when he admiringly said : 

"Abraham Lincoln kicked the Constitution into the 
Capitol cellar, and there it remained innocuous until the war 
ended." 

When the bill for dismembering Virginia was up for consider- 
ation Thaddeus Stevens gave vent to his respect for the Consti- 
tution as follows : 

"I will not stultify myself by supposing that we have 
any warrant in the Constitution for this proceeding. This 
talk of restoring the Union as it was under the Constitution 
is one of the absurdities repeated until I have become sick of 
it. This Union shall never be restored, with my consent, 
under the Constitution as it is." 

As its progenitors, the Federals of 1796, had believed in the 
right of secession, so did their legitimate offspring, the Repub- 



., MAP. 21 Facts and Falsehoods. 149 

■an ])artv, born in 1854, believe in secession from the day of 
us birth. The highest orators of that party pubHcly declared such 
Ldief. Even before the organization of the Republican party, Mr. 
Lincoln proclaimed his faith in the right of secession. On the 
13th day of January, 1848. from the floor of Congress, ]\Ir. Lin- 
coln declared for the right of States to secede from the Union. 

"Any people anywhere," said Mr. Lincoln, "being in- 
clined and having the power, have the right to rise up and 
shake ofT the existing government and to form one that 
suits them better. Nor is this right confined to cases in 
which the people of an existing government may choose to 
exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may make 
their own of such territory as they inhabit. More than this, 
a majority of any portion of such people may revolutionize, 
putting down a minority intermingling with or near them 
who oppose their movements. — Appendix to Congressional 
Globe, 1st Session 30th Congress, page 94. 

These words ring with the spirit of 1776. The South's seces- 
sion fulfilled every requirement laid down by Lincoln. The South 
had the right and she exercised it with decency and dignity. She 
did not rise up and shake ofif the Union Government in a turbulent 
manner ; she quietly withdrew. She did not, as New England did 
in 1 814, select a time to withdraw when it might endanger the 
Union. She bade her old political associates a sorrowful farewell. 
She assured them of her desire to remain at peace, and respect- 
fully asked them to make a just settlement of their partnership 
afifairs. Buchanan received those overtures in a friendly spirit; 
so did the great body of the North's people. How did Lincoln 
receive them? For six weeks Lincoln and Seward pursued an 
ambiguous, deceitful course ; they did not take the people of the 
North into their confidence ; they strove to deceive ; they made 
speeches now looking toward war, now toward peace. Lincoln 
afterward said the hardest work he ever did was making these 
speeches intended to deceive. Not until Lincoln was ready to 
strike the first blow of war did he cry out to the South, "Rebel ! 
Traitor!" When he called for 75,000 armed men on the pretense 
of defending his Capitol, he falsely asserted and deceived the 
people of the North into the belief that the South was eager for 
war, and intended to invade the North. Lincoln's war on the 
South began with falsehoods and was run on falsehoods to the 
bitter end. 



150 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 21 

In the court of posterity how will this dissimulation be 

judged? 

In "Recollections of Lincoln" Lamon says of his journey 

from Springfield to Washington : 

"Mr. Lincoln's speeches were the absorbing topic of 
the hour. The people everywhere were eager to hear a 
forecast of his policy, and he was eager to keep silence. After 
having been en route a day or two he told me he had done 
much hard work in his life, but to make speeches day after day 
with the object of speaking and saying nothing, was the 
hardest work he had ever done." — Lamon's Recollections of 
Lincoln, page 34. 

At no period of Mr. Lincoln's presidency was he candid and 

sincere to the people. It was his nature to trick and deceive. 

Imperial Republicans of to-day laud and admire this trait in his 

character. They praise his ability to use the fox's skin when the 

lion's was too short. 

Senator Wade of Ohio was one of the highest lights in the 

Republican party. Wade, as emphatically as Lincoln had done, 

declared the right of secession, December 4tli, 1856, from the 

Senate floor Senator Wade of Ohio proclaimed the South's right 

to secede as follows : 

"I am not one," said Senator Wade, "to ask the South to 
continue in such a Union as this. It would be doing violence 
to the platform of the party to which I belong. We have 
adopted the old Declaration of Independence as the basis 
of our political movement, which declares that any people, 
when their government ceases to protect their rights, have 
the right to recur to original principles, and if need be to 
destroy the government under which they live, and to erect 
on its ruins another conducive to their welfare. I hold that 
the people of the South have this right. I will not blame 
any people for exercising this right whenever they think the 
contingency has come. You can not forcibly hold men in 
the Union, for the attempt to do so would subvert the first 
principles of the Government under which we live. — Con. 
Globe, 3d .Session 34th Congress, page 25. 

In all the long and woeful story of man's treachery to man 
is there an instance of treachery blacker than this of which the 
Republican party was guilty in the 6o's ? For more than 60 years 
that party, first as Federals then as Republicans, had preached 
and prayed for secession, had urged the South to secede, had 



Chap. 22 Facts and Falsehoods. 151 

invited the South to aid it to break the Union asunder, had hated 
and denounced the Union as a covenant with hell, yet, when at 
last the Southern people, to escape the hate so long poured upon 
them, peacefully, quietly withdrew from the Union, that same 
Republican party turned on them with a fury, a vindictive ferocity, 
a hellish animosity, not even savage and enraged tigers could 
surpass. 



CHAPTER XX 11. 

Republicans Ascend to Power. Lincoln and Sezvard Make 
Ambiguous Speeches. Webster Davis on the Azvfnl Car- 
nage of the War. Seward's Remarkable Letter to Lincoln. 
Xicolav and Hay Comment on Sezvard's Letter. A Moral 
Pervert. 

The reader must bear in mind that in i860 there were three 
Presidential candidates in the field. Lincoln was a sectional can- 
didate and a minority President. Of the 4.700,000 votes cast the 
Republican party only got 1,850,000. Of these 1,850,000, the 
greater number did not want Lincoln. Seward or Chase was 
th-'ir leal choice. Lincoln had only been affiliated with th? party 
two }ears. Eastern Republicans knew little if anything of r..in- 
coln. WHat little they did know they did not like or adnurc. It 
was said at the time, and is still said by the knowing, that a 
blunder of Thurlow Weed's lost the prize to Seward and threw it 
at the feet of Lincoln. Hence during Lincoln's life Republicans 
called iv'm "His Accidency," not Plis Excellency. Holland's Life 
of Lincoln, published 1865, seems to have been written to serve 
two purposes; ist. to bolster up the apotheosis theory of Lin- 
coln's divinity ; 2nd, to laud and glorify the Republican party. 
Holland never permits a fact to stand in the way of any pretty or 
pleasing falsehood he may wish to use, yet he sometimes records 
facts worth remembering. Instance the following: 

'■'During the first month of Lincoln's presidency he was 
rhroiigtd with office jcc-.lcers, and was holding protracted 
Cabinet meetings. All these labors were performed with con- 
sciousness that his nominal friends (men of his own party), 
as well as the great majority of the people throughout the 
Union, had not the slightest sympathy with him. There was 
distraction even in his councils." 

From this is seen that not only the great majority of the 
people throughout the LTnion, but the men in Lincoln's own party, 



152 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 22 

even in his Cabinet, were opposed to Lincoln's war schemes. 
McChire, Greeley, Nicolay and Hay, and many other Republican 
writers bear testimony to the almost universal opposition to war 
in the Northern States. Lincoln and Seward for a time were the 
only members of the Cabinet eager to begin war. During the first 
month of Lincoln's presidency, after the Cabinet members dis- 
covered that Lincoln was fixed in his determination to begin war, 
the question was discussed at what point should it begin. Seward 
opposed beginning at Fort Sumter ; he wanted to strike the first 
blow on the gulf at Pensacola. 

Hapgood says the New York Tribune, New York Herald, 
and many other papers representing different parties in the North- 
ern States, as well as in the middle, in Massachusetts and Boston 
itself, at first opposed war on the South, and boldly declared that 
the South had acted on her rights. Hapgood seems to be ignorant 
of the fact that the Republican party itself was a secession party, 
and for over twenty years had zealously worked for disimion. 

Chase said: "Dissolution of the Union is better than a 

conflict. I will oppose any attempt to reinforce Sumter if it 

means war." 

Seward said in the Cabinet : 

"Even preparation to reinforce will precipitate war." 

Gideon Wells, Secretary of the Navy, was weak on this ques- 
tion. Of all his Cabinet, Lincoln only found Blair in favor of re- 
inforcing Sumter. 

There was not a man in the Cabinet that did not know that 
the attempt to reinforce Sumter would be the first blow of war. 

A few blood-thirsty leaders of the Republican party had 
entered into a conspiracy to force war on the country at any and 
every cost, despite the opposition of the great majority of people 
in the Northern States, and despite the South's pleas for peace. 

February 2d, 1861, Mr. Stephen Douglas, in a letter published 
in the Memphis Appeal, wrote of the Republican leaders as fol- 
lows: 

"They are bold, determined men. Thev are striving 10 
break up the Union under the pretense of preserving it. 
They are struggling to overthrow the Constitution while 
professing undying attachment to it, and a willingness to 
make any sacrifice to maintain it. They are trying to plunge 
the country into a cruel war as the surest means of destroying 
the Union upon the plea of enforcing the laws and protecting 
public property." 



Chap. 22 Facts and Falsehoods. 153 

Shortly after Douglas wrote the above letter, Senator Zack 
Chandler of Michig-an wrote a letter to Governor Austin Blair, 
which proves the guilty conspiracy of the men determined on 
war. Virginia had solicited a conference of States to see if some 
plan could not be devised and agreed on to prevent war and save 
the Union. Chandler wrote Governor Blair that he opposed the 
conference, and no Republican State should send a delegate. He 
implored Governor Blair to send stiff-backed delegates or none, 
as the whole thing was against his judgment. Chandler added 
to his letter these sinister words : 

"Some of the manufacturing States think that a war 
would be awful ; without a little blood-letting this Union will 
not be worth a curse." — Carpenter's Logic of History, page 
138. 

Assistant Secretary of the Interior Webster Davis, in an 
oration on Decoration Day at Arlington, said: 

"Counting the men who fell in battles and received 
wounds not mortal at the moment, but who died afterward 
from these wounds, 700,000 soldiers who wore the blue died 
of that awful war." 

These 700,000 men in blue were sacrificed on the pretext of 
defending the flag and saving the Union. 

Both pretexts were impudent falsehoods. Not a man in the 
Republican party respected the flag. Both union and flag were 
scorned and hated by Republicans. The New York Tribune was 
in the habit of adorning its columns with doggerel deriding the 
flag. For example : 

Tear down the flatmting lie ; 

Half mast the starry flag; 
Insult no sunny sky 

With Hate's polluted rag. 

Is there a flag on earth worth the sacrifice of 700,000 lives, 
to say nothing of the anguish of hearts left behind to mourn over 
the sacrifice? 

No man acquainted with the history of the Republican party 
can for one moment doubt that, from the day of its organization 
in 1854 to the hour Fort Sumter was fired on, Republicans had 
striven might and main to dissolve the Union. In view of this 
indisputable fact, what will Posterity think of the trickery, the 
cunning, the mean and base deception of Republican offi- 
cials, who inaugurated and for four years waged the most cruel 



154 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 22 

war ever fought between English-speaking people on the flimsy 
pretext of saving the Union? 

During the first month of Lincoln's presidency he was busy 
looking after ofifice-seekers. Not a step did he take toward war. 
Seward, the man utterly callous to human suffering, became im- 
patient to begin war, not only with the South, but with two Euro- 
pean kingdoms as well. Tremendous war schemes brooded in 
Seward's brain. Exulting in the possession of power, Seward was 
eager to use it for the destruction and misery of his fellow-mortals. 
At the end of the first month, unable longer to bear the quiet of 
peace, Seward longed to plunge this country, as well as two 
European countries, into a sea of human blood. To hurry up 
Lincoln, Seward wrote a carefully prepared paper intended for 
Lincoln's eye only. We give this singular document verbatim. 
It was headed — 

"Some Thoughts for the President's Consideration." 

"First," wrote Seward, "we are at the end of a month's 
administration and yet without a policy. 

"Second. This, however, is not culpable, it has been un- 
avoidable. The presence of the Senate with the need to 
meet applications for patronage have prevented attention to 
other and more grave matters. 

"Third. But further delay to adopt and prosecute our 
policy for both domestic and foreign affairs, would not only 
bring scandal on the administration, but danger on the 
country. 

"Fourth. To do this we must dismiss the aDpli'::r!-its t )r 
ofiice, but, how? I suggest that we make the local appoint- 
ments forthwith, leaving foreign or general ones for ulterior 
and occasional action. 

"Fifth. The policy at home. My system is built on this 
idea as a ruling one, viz : That we must change the question 
before the public from one upon slavery or about slavery, 
to a question of Union or Disunion. In other words, from 
what would be regarded as a party question, to one of Patriot- 
ism or Union. The occupation and evacuation of Fort Sum- 
ter although not in fact a slavery or party question is so re- 
garded. Witness the temper manifested by the Republicans 
of the Northern States, and by the Union men in the South. 
For the rest I would simultaneously defend and reinforce all 
the Forts in the gulf, and have the Navy recalled from foreign 



Chap. 22 Facts and Falsehoods. 155 

stations to be prepared for a blockade. Put the Island of 
Key West under martial law. This will raise distinctly the 
question of Union or Disunion. I would maintain every fort 
and Federal possession in the South. I would at once de- 
mand explanations from France and Spain categorically. I 
would demand explanations from Great Britain and Russia, 
and send agents into Canada, Mexico, and Central America, 
to rouse a vigorous Continental spirit of Independence on 
this continent against European intervention. And if satis- 
factory explanations are not received from Spain and France, 
I would convene Congress and declare war against them. 
For this reason it must be somebody's business to pursue and 
direct it incessantly. Either the President must do it and be 
all the while actively in it, or devolve it on some member of 
his cabinet. Once adopted debates must end and all agree 
and abide. It is not my especial province, but I neither seek 
to evade or assume responsibilitv. 

"WM. H. SEWARD." 

It does not appear that this letter of Seward's was ever laid 
before the Cabinet. It does not appear that his proposal to pick 
a quarrel with France and Spain, and make war on those two 
countries as well as on the South, was ever discussed in the Cab- 
inet. The evidence goes to show that Seward gave the letter to 
Lincoln for his private consideration only, and that Lincoln said 
nothing about it, but accepted the advice to drop their party's 
issue. Slavery, and in its place put the issue, "Save the Union." 
He rejected the advice to seek a quarrel with and make war on 
France and Spain. No act of Lincoln's and Seward's lives shows 
a more autocratic spirit than the way they turned down their 
party's issue and set up an issue their party hated. Both Lincoln 
and Seward were creatures of the Republican party, put in office 
by Republican votes, yet in the very outset of their official career 
they offered the grossest possible insult to that party by spurning 
its most cherished issvie, slavery, and putting in its place the 
Union, a thing their party had ever despised, hated, and de- 
nounosd from a thousand rostrums. 

In Nicolay and Hay's Life of Lincoln, Vol. 3, page 440, we 
find this comment on Seward's letter: 

"On April ist. 1861, Seward made Lincoln a proposi- 
tion to turn his back on the party which had put him into 
office, and by certain arbitrary acts he would plunge the 
country mto foreign wars, and asked Lincoln to invite him 



i56 Facts and Falsehoods, Chap. 22 

(Seward) to manage all this, to bring on the wars and carry 

them on." 

Nicolay and Hay seemed to perceive something of the stu- 
pendous crime and the egregious folly involved in Seward's prop- 
osition to plunge the country into war with two unoffending 
kingdoms of Europe, but neither of these two men seemed, even 
dimly to perceive the equally stupendous crime of forcing a con- 
flict between the people of the Northern and the people of the 
Southern States, both peoples at that time feeling kindly toward 
each other, both anxious to avoid war, both loving peace, believing 
there was no just cause for war. Nicolay and Hay were ready 
enough to condemn Seward for inviting Lincoln to turn his back 
on his party's isue, slavery, and to take up an issue, the Union, 
which his party had hated from the day of its organization, but 
not one word of blame have these two apotheosizing men for 
Lincoln, who so readily accepted Seward's advice on the issue 
question and his advice to begin war on the South, but rejected 
the advice to pick a quarrel with and declare war on France and 
Spain. Nicolay and Hay were two young men of Springfield, 
Illinois, who, when Lincoln went to Washington city, accom- 
panied him thither, and were Lincoln's private secretaries until 
his death. In 1890, twenty-five years after Lincoln's death, these 
two men jointly concocted ten large volumes, which they labeled 
"The Life of Lincoln," and dedicated to Robert Lincoln, the dead 
President's son. As the whole work seems to have been gotten 
up under the influence of the apotheosis ceremony, more for the 
purpose of glorifying the deified dead President than to show him 
to the public as he was in life, a more appropriate title would be 
A Ten Volume Monument to the Deified Lincoln. 

The reader should here pause and carefully consider Sew- 
ard's letter to Lincoln. Look at its items one by one, consider 
the fact that Seward had long been an honored and trusted mem- 
ber of the Republican party, whose votes had put him and Lin- 
coln into power ; consider the fact that the darling desire of his 
party had ever been to sever the Union in twain, that to free 
slaves was its war cry, its hobby. Consider the insult to his 
party, the treachery to party principles, the outrage to party feel- 
ings, involved in Seward's proposal to cast aside as a useless rag 
his party's banner blazoned with the mottoes they loved, "Free 
Slaves! Down with the Union!" and in their place put the motto, 
"Save the Union!" A thing which stunk in their nostrils. Save 
a thing they had ever hated? Save the thing whose destruction 
they had prayed for, labored for, since their party's birth ? What 



Chap. 22 Facts and Falsehoods. 157 

induced Seward and Lincoln to take this ungrateful, this insulting 
course toward their own party? The reasons are not hard to 
find ; they lie on the surface, to be seen by all with eyes to set 
and judgrnents to understand. Lincoln and Seward were of the 
nature to revel in the use of power. To be commanders and dic- 
tators of a great war would greatly enhance their power. Deter- 
mined to make war, yet finding that the great body of the North- 
ern people had set their faces as flints against a war based on 
the slavery issue, these two men, the one keenly astute, the other 
with a "cunning that was genius," both destitute of moral scru- 
ples, both with hearts of stone, for one month pondered over the 
situation. The people would not support a war based on slavery ; 
the problem they had to solve was by what means could they rouse 
the peace-loving people of the North to the fury of war? They 
saw but one way, and that was to turn their backs on their own 
party, cast that party's issue to the dogs, set up the word "Union" 
as a god to fight and die for, and make the Northern people be- 
lieve the South intended a war of invasion on their States, on 
their Union Government. Imperialists always look on the peo- 
ple as sheep, to be deceived and driven. Alas ! in this case the 
people were indeed deceived and driven into war, and 700,000 
men who wore the blue were sacrificed on the altar of that false 
god, the Union. The scheme was successfully carried out, the 
people of the North were tricked, the people of the South forced 
into war. In all the black history of man's treachery to man, I 
know of nothing more damnable than this. The arguments Sew- 
ard used in his letter to Lincoln are as foolish as they are false. 

"Delay," wrote Seward, "to prosecute our policy (the 
policy of war ) will not only bring scandal on the adminis- 
tration, but danger to the country." 

As war is the greatest evil that can befall a people, except 
dishonor, how could delay in bringing that evil bring scandal 
and danger? The scandal and danger was in bringing the zvar, 
not in the delay of bringing it. Seward and Lincoln had not 
been elected to bring war on the people ; the people did not want 
war. From what source, then, could the danger come? Certainly 
not from the South. The South was pleading for peace. Se- 
cession had been an accomplished fact for months before Lincoln 
took his seat in the Presidential chair. There was not the faint- 
est shadow of danger in that direction. Would the reader like 
to understand the mental and moral traits of the man who wrote 
that remarkable letter to Lincoln? General Piatt, a personal 



iS8 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 22 

friend and great admirer of Seward, in 1887 sketched his char- 
acter thus : 

"Seward begun life as a school teacher in the South. 
He had been treated with condescending indifference by the 
unenlightened masters, which treatment he never forgot. ( Was 
it spite that made Seward so vindictive toward the Southern 
people?) "Seward," continued Piatt, "looked down on the 
white men of the South in the same cynical way that he did 
upon the slaves. He had no pity for the slaves, and no dis- 
like for the master. He was a great favorite with the last 
named. He had contempt for them, which he concealed as 
carefully as he did his contempt for the United States Con- 
stitution. Seward had trained himself to believe that world- 
ly wickedness indicated ability. He thought to be bad was 
to be clever. He thought that devotion to wine, women 
and infidelity gave proof of superior intelligence. He affect- 
ed a wickedness he did not feel, because such wickedness, 
in his estimation, was good form." 

In presenting to the public this picture of his friend, Gen- 
eral Piatt seems to have had no suspicion that he was writing 
down that friend as a moral degenerate, a mental pervert. No 
mentally and morally sound man can possibly believe that "wick- 
edness indicates mental ability," or that "devotion to wine, zvomen 
and iniidelity gives proof of a superior intelligence." Everyone 
knows when men talk of devotion to wine and women they mean 
devotion to drink and prostitutes, not to the honest wives, moth- 
ers and daughters in the land. Yet to this moral degenerate, 
this mental pervert, Lincoln delegated power as despotic as any 
Bourbon King of old exercised over his subjects. Lincoln was 
as eager for war on the South as Seward. He made haste to 
drop the slavery issue and put in its place the Union. The old 
leaders of the party were angry enough at this outrage to their 
party's feelings and principles, and when Lincoln called for 75,000 
men to fight for the Union, some of those leaders took the stump 
and tried to prevent enlistments. Parker Pillsbury, in a speech, 
said to young men : 

"Recognize your own manhood ; your own divine 
rights and destiny, and believe yourselves too sacred to be 
shot down like dogs by Jeff Davis and his myrmidons ; die 
rather at home in the arms of a loving mother and sisters. 
Be shot down, if you must, at home; die like Christians, and 



Chap. 23 Facts and Falsehoods. 159 

have a decent burial, rather than go down and die in the 
cause of a Union bHstered all over with the curses of God." 

Wendell Phillips, speaking of Lincoln, cried out in liigh 
fccorn : 

"Who is this huckster in poHtics? Who is this county 
court lawyer?" 

In another speech Phillips denounced the war and denounced 

"That slave-hound from Illinois!" 

In another speech Phillips denounced the war and denounced 
Lincoln roundly. 

"Here," cried Phillips, "are a series of States girding the 
gulf which think they should have an independent gov- 
ernment ; they have a right to decide that question without 
appealing to you or to me. Standing with the principles 
of '76 behind us, who can deny them that right? Abraham 
Lincoln has no right to a soldier in Fort Sumter. You can- 
not go through Massachusetts and enlist men to bombard 
Charleston and New Orleans." 

But not only did Lincoln go through Massachusetts and 
enlist men to bombard the cities of the South, he soon brought 
Wendell Phillips to embrace despotism as ardently as lover ever 
embraced his bride. He made Phillips repudiate and spit on the 
principles of '76, made him shout loudest of all to the South, 
"Rebel! Traitor! Rebel! Traitor!" 

On another occasion Phillips told his audience that he "had 
labored for nineteen years to dissolve the Union, and now success 
has come at last." Before utterly subjected to despotism, in a 
speech Phillips said : 

"Let the South go! Let her go with flags flying and 
trumpets blowing! Give her her forts, her arsenals, and 
her sub-treasuries. Speed the parting guest! All hail dis- 
union! Beautiful on the mountains are the feet of them 
who bring the glad tidings of disunion!" 

Not only did Wendell Phillips voice the opinion of the ma- 
jority of his own party, but on the subject of war on the South 
he voiced the feelings and opinions of all classes of men in the 
Northern States. Yet, in spite of this immense opposition to war, 
Seward and Lincoln, as Greeley said, "clearly put themselves in 
the wrong and rushed on carnage," and not only did these men 
turn their backs on their own party, but they turned their backs 



i6o Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 23 

on their own opinions, privately and publicly declared, as will 
be shown in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Seivanfs Falsehoods. Treachery Blacker than Benedict Arnold's. 

Lincoln Confesses that He, at Medill's Demand, Made War 

on the South. 

On April 4th, 1861, Seward said to Russell, the London 
Times correspondent: 

"It would be contrary to the spirit of the American 
Government to use armed force to subjugate the South. If 
the people of the South want to stay out of the Union, if they 
desire independence, let them have it." 

On April loth, 1861, Seward officially wrote C. F. Adams, 
then Minister to England: 

"Only a despotic and imperial government can subju- 
gate seceding States." 

With a treachery blacker than Benedict Arnold's, know- 
ingly, deliberately, these two men, Seward and Lincoln, deter- 
mined to change the American Government from a free Re- 
public to an imperial despotism. During the first month of 
Lincoln's Presidency the question of war or peace was freely 
discussed in the Cabmet. Few members were in favor of war. 
Chase strongly opposed* war. Chase always had been a disunion- 
ist; he welcomed disunion and wanted to let the South possess 
the peace and independence that was hers by right. Not one 
single member of the Cabinet was ignorant of the fact that an 
attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter would be the first blow of war. 
In a discussion of this question in the Cabinet, Seward said : 

"The attempt to reinforce Sumter will provoke an attack 
and involve war. The very preparation for such an expedi- 
tion will precipitate war at that point. I oppose beginning 
war at that point. I would advise agai.ist the expedition to 
Charleston. I would at once, at every cost, prepare for war 
at Pensacola and Texas. I would instr.xt Major Anderson 
to retire from Sumter." 

Lincoln preferred to open the war at Sumter. If there is 
a man in America so ignorant as to believe the falsehood put 
forth by these unscrupulous men that the South began the war, 
that Lincoln was averse to war, that he called for 75,000 armed 



Chap. 23 Facts and Falsehoods. 161 

men to protect Washington City, let him consider the story found 
in Miss Tarbell's Life of Lincohi, page 144, Vbl. II., Medill, of 
the Chicago Tribune, tells the story, and Miss Tarbell puts it in 
her book. It is a very valuable item of history, for it kills the 
old, old lie so often told that the South began the war of the 6o's. 

"In 1864," relates Medill, "when the call for extra troops 
came, Chicago revolted. Chicago had sent 22,000 and was 
drained. There were no young men to go. no aliens except 
what was already bought. The citizens held a mass meeting 
and appointed three men, of whom I (Medill) was one, to 
go to Washington and ask Stanton (the War Secretary) 
to give Cook County a new enrollment. On reaching Wash- 
ington we went to Stanton with our statement. He refused. 
Then we went to President Lincoln. T can not do it,' said 
Lincoln, 'but I will go with you to Stanton and hear the 
arguments of both sides.' So we all went over to the War 
Department together. Stanton and General Frye were 
there, and they both contended that the quota should' not be 
changed. The argument went on for some time, and was 
finally referred to Lincoln, who had been silently listening. 
When appealed to, Lincoln turned to us with a black and 
frowning face: 'Gentlemen/ he said, with a voice full of 
bitterness, 'after Boston, Chicago has been the chief instru- 
ment in bringing this war on the country. The Northwest 
opposed the South, as New England opposed the South. 
It is you, Medill, who is largely responsible for making 
blood flow as it has. You called for war until you had it. 
I have given it to you. What you have asked for you have 
had. Now you come here begging to be let off from the call 
for more men, which I have made to carry on the war you 
demanded. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Go 
home and raise your 6,000 men. And you, Medill, you 
and your Tribune have had more influence than any other 
paper in the Northwest in making this war. Go home and 
send me those men I want." " 

Medill says that he and his companions, feeling guilty, left 
without further argument. They returned to Chicago, and 
6,000 more men from the working classes were dragged from 
their homes, their families, forced into the ranks to risk limbs 
and lives in a war they had no part in making, while the men 
that forced that war on an unwilling people remained at home 
in comfort and safety, and made enormous fortunes by the war. 



i62 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 23 

Is it any wonder educated workingmen often become anarchists 
and hate all governments? 

Reflect, oh, reader, on Lincohi's words : 

"You, Medill called for war. I have given you war. 
What you asked for you have. You demanded war. I 
(Lincoln) have given you what you demanded, and you, Ale- 
dill, are largely responsible for all the blood that has flowed." 

In the court of posterity Lincoln will not be able to throw 
all of that responsibility on Medifl. Had Lincoln been true to 
his trust, true to the principles of 'y6, true to the United States 
Constitution he had sworn to obey, true to the party whose vote 
had put him in office, true to the great body of the Northern peo- 
ple, who opposed war, true to his own declaration of the right of 
secession, no number of Medills and no number of Chandlers 
could have made him begin that awful war of the 60s. These 
three men, Lincoln, Seward and Medill, were the chief conspir- 
ators against American liberty. They lived to see the triumph 
of their evil work. They lived to see the principles of Democ- 
racy trampled down into the bloody mire on a hundred battlefields. 
They lived to see the desolation of the States they had hated for 
their adherence to Jefferson's principles. They lived to see the 
once free people of the States on the South Atlantic coast rob- 
bed of every liberty they had won by their swords from Eng- 
land's King. They lived to see the South's fair and fruitful 
fields desolate deserts, her homes heaps of ashes, her fertile land 
a wide waste ; and if, during all that devilish work, one word of 
sympathy for the suffering people of the South, one word of 
pity for the anguish and agonies endured, ever passed the lips 
of either of these three men I have failed to find any record there- 
of. On the contrary, the more cruel officers and soldiers in the 
field, the more highly they were commended. It is related that 
the last utterance that fell from Lincoln's lips was a gibe at the 
crushed and conquered South. 

"Shall the orchestra play Dixie?" he was asked as he sat 
in his box in Ford's theatre that fatal night. "We have con- 
quered the South," returned Lincoln gleefully, "we may as 
well take her music." 

Even as he spoke the unseen Nemesis was standing near, 
her eyes upon him. In her hidden hand the missile of death. 
To the sound of the South's spirit-stirring air the soul of the man 
who had rushed on carnage fled from its house of clay to stand 



Chap. 24 Facts and Falsehoods. 163 

before the bar of the Great Judge and receive sentence for the 
deeds he had done on earth. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Greeley Opposes ll'ar on the South. He Speaks to and for the 
Republican Party. He Declares the Right of Secession. 
Why Lincoln did not Sooner Begin the War. Why Buch- 
anan did not Begin It. 

Before giving Mr. Greeley's testimony, it is well to show 
the people of this age how he stood with his own party. Greeley 
was a life-long abolitionist. All abolitionists believed in the 
right of secession. All hated the Union and wanted to break it 
to pieces. No man stood higher in the Republican party than 
Greeley. In "Our Presidents, and Hozv We Make Them," Mc- 
Clure says : 

"Greeley was one of the noblest, purest and ablest of 
the great men of the land. Greeley was in closer touch with 
the active sense of the people than even President Lincoln 
himself." 

After Lincoln's death, and the apotheosis ceremony had 
been performed, it became the custom of Republican writers and 
speakers to talk of "Lincoln's being in touch with the people." 
This is nothing but apotheosis twaddle. Lincoln was no more 
in touch with the common people than he was with the distin- 
guished leaders of his own party. It is almost the unanimous 
testimony of Republicans who knew the living Lincoln that he 
was neither tr.usted or beloved by the people of any class. Stan- 
ton, when on his death-bed, told General Piatt that the common 
soldiers in the army had to be warned by their officers not to 
manifest their dislike to Lincoln when he came to review them. 

McClure says: 

"Greeley's Tribune was the most widely read Republican 
paper in the country, and was more potent in moulding Re- 
publican sentiment." 

In a letter to Robert J. Walker, Lincoln said : 

"Greeley is a great power ; to have him firmly behind me 
would be equal to an army of 100,000 men." 

At no time did Lincoln have Greeley behind him. It is said 
Greeley was always a thorn in Lincoln's side. He was a very 



164 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 24 

large thorn in opposing the war, and after the war was on Gree- 
ley was a severe critic of Lincoln's methods of management. Any 
Democrat as outspoken as Greeley would promptly have been 
sent to prison. Before it was certain that Lincoln meant coer- 
cion, day in and day out Greeley opposed coercion. In one issue 
of his Tribune, Greeley said: 

"If the cotton States decide that they can do better out of 
the LInion than in it, we insist on letting" them go in peace." 
In another issue Greeley said : 

"If eight States, having 5,000,000 people, choose to 
separate from us, they cannot be permanently prevented by 
cannon." 

Greeley did not then dream it was the purpose of Lincoln 
and Seward to change the form of the Union Government from 
the principles of "76 to the monarchic strong Central Government 
advocated by Hamilton, which would enable them forcibly to 
hojd the South in the Union. 

On December 17, i860, the Tribune had this: 

"The South has as good a right to secede from the 
Union as the colonies had to secede from Great Ih'itain. 
I will never stand for coercion, for subjugation. It would 
not be just." 

This was good Democratic doctrine, but not yet was Lin- 
coln ready to arrest and imprison men for such utterances. 

In the New York Tribune, December 17, i860, three days be- 
fore South Carolina seceded from the Union, Greeley had this : 

"If the Declaration of Independence justified the seces- 
sion from the British Empire of 3,000,000 of colonists in 
1776, we do not see why it would not justify the secession 
of 5,000,000 of Southerners from the Federal Union in 
i86g." 

Democracy of this sort was hard to bear, but still Lincoln 
and Seward were silent. 

In the Tribune of February 23, 1861, five days after Jeflfer- 
son Davis was inaugurated President of the Southern Confed- 
eracy, Greeley's Tribune had this : 

"If the cotton States or the gulf States choose to 
form an independent nation, they have a clear moral right 
to do so. If the great body of the Southern people have 
become alienated from the Union and wish to escape from 
it, we will do our best to forward their views." 



Chap. 24 Facts and Falsehoods. 165 

When Greeley wrote these articles, in his heart was a strong 
sense of Democratic justice. Greeley knew that for over twen- 
ty years his own party had done and said everything the bit- 
terness of hate could devise to alienate the Southern States and 
drive them out of the Union. He knew that his party, day in 
and day out, for years had been hurling on Southern men and 
women every species of calumny and insult the English lan- 
guage could conve}\ He knew his party was extremely anxious 
to have the South secede. He knew that the foremost men of 
his party had publicly invited the men of the South to join them 
in measures to break up the Union. Democratic doctrines of this 
nature daily appearing in the Republican party's most influen- 
tial paper greatly annoyed and alarmed Lincoln and Seward, but 
not yet had the time arrived to apply the thumb screws of force. 
The Tribune continued to give forth what war Republicans call- 
ed Democratic screeches. 

On November 5, i860, in his Tirhnnc, Greeley said: 

"Whenever a considerable section of our Union is re- 
solved to go out of the Union, we shall resist all coercive 
measures to keep them in. We hope never to live in a Re- 
public when one section is pinned to another by bayonets. 
Those who would rush on carnage to defeat the separation 
demanded by the popular vote of the Southern people would 
clearly place themselves in the wrong." 

On March 2, 1861, in the Tribune, Greeley had this: 

"We have repeatedly said, and we once more say, the 
great principles embodied in the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, that Governments derive their just powers from the 
consent of the governed, is sound and just. If the South- 
ern people choose to secede and found an independent 
government of their own, they have the moral right to do 
so." 

This was the last trumpet- toned blast from Greeley. Lin- 
coln and Seward were noM ready to act. "This must be stop- 
ped or it will stop us," muttered the man whose foot was on the 
\step of the first American throne. "Give me a little bell," re- 
turned his high chief counselor, "and I'll ring for the arrest of 
'n^ery Democratic screecher." What measures were used to 
ilence Greeley, or rather to make him sing an entirely dififer- 
nt tune, may never be known, but they were efifective. The 
Jange was made in a single night. On the morning follow- 



i66 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 24 

ing his strongest Democratic utterance, Greeley completely re- 
versed his position, and thenceforth the pages of the Tribune 
were freely besprinkled with words grown obsolete under Dem- 
ocracy's rule — words native to kingly climes — rebel, traitor, 
treason, loyal, disloyal, truly loyal, etc. Under cover of dark- 
ness Greeley cut loose forever from the principles of 1776, and 
fled to the camp of the men who represented the dogmas of 
George III. of England. He became not only the advocate of 
those dogmas, but the ally and servitor of the men who rushed 
on carnage. He not only upheld the wrong he had so eloquently 
denounced, but viciously turned on the victims of that wrong, 
traduced and maligned them to excuse his own ignoble and cow- 
ardly abandonment of sacred principles. After the war ended 
Greeley wrote a book called the "American Conflict," and as if to 
justify his change from the principles of '76 to the doctrine of 
imperialism, he affected to believe that the South had fought for 
slavery and the Rq3ublican party to destroy slavery. No man 
in America better than Greeley knew that the South fought for 
precisely the same principles for which the colonies of '76 had 
fought — independence. No man better than Greeley knew that 
Lincoln inaugurated war from precisely the same motives which 
made George HI. of England wage war on the colonies — con- 
quest. To sustain the falsehood that the South fought for 
slavery, Greeley plentifully besprinkled the pages of his book 
with words intended to convey the idea that slavery was the 
animus, the germ of the war. The words "rebels, traitors, 
slave-holders' rebellion, slave-holders' war, slave-holders' 
treason," stare out from every page of Greeley's book. No 
man better than Greeley knew it was no more the slave-holders' 
war than was the war of '76. Greeley knew that the great 
body of the South's people almost to a unit wanted independ- 
ence, and fought to gain it. He knew that the great body of the 
South's people were not slave-holders. Blair, of Maryland, a 
dose friend of Lincoln, on this subject said: 

"It is absurd to say this is the slave-holders' war. In 
all the South are only about 250,000 slave holders. These 
rich men are not too eager for war. It is the Southern 
people's war. The people wont independence and mean to 
get it if they can." 

The cotton, rice and sugar planters were mostly the sh't 
holders of the South. These were not the men most eager to 
risk Hfe and property in battling for independence. As a jen- 



Chap. 24 Facts and Falsehoods. 167 

eral rule, the rich are conservative, are afraid of untried condi- 
tions. The thousand and one insults, the slanders, the intense 
hatred New England, first led by Federalists, then by the Re- 
publican party, for sixty years had hurled on the South's people, 
had driven them to secession. Who would not wish to leave 
a house of hate? 

Greeley said that the Tribune had plenty of company in 
its anti-war sentiments. It is stated that over two hundred of 
the foremost journals in the East coincided with Greeley in 
opposition to war. 

The New York Herald, November 9, i860, said: 

"For far less provocation than the South has had, our 
fathers seceded from Great Britain. Coercion is out of the 
question ; each State possesses the right to break the tie of the 
Union, as a nation has to break a treaty. A State has the 
right to repel coercion as a nation has to repel invasion." 

Morse, in ''Lincoln, One of the American Statesmen Ser- 
ies," published in 1892, says: 

"It was appalling to read the columns of Greeley's 
Tribune." 

It was appalling only to the few men of that time who, with 
Seward, Lincoln, Chandler and Medill, were eager to begin war, 
and impatient at the people's opposition. In his "Life of Lin- 
coln/' published in 1865, Holland gives the reason why Lincoln 
did not call for armed men to "suppress rebels" before the fall 
of Sumter. 

"Up to the fall of Sumter," says Holland, "Mr. Lin- 
coln had no basis for action in the public feeling. If he 
had raised an army, that would have been an act of hostil- 
ity, that would have been coercion. A thousand Northern 
presses would have pounced down on him as a provoker 
of war. After the fall of Sumter was the time to act." 

This shows how almost unanimous was the public feeling 
against war until after the Northern people had been worked 
up by the lie that the South intended to invade the North. Re- 
publican writers of today call the opposition of that time treason, 
and the opposers "traitors." If they were traitors, then more 
than two-thirds of the American people in the North were 
traitors. 



1 68 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 25 

John T. Morse, in "Lincoln, American Statesman Series, 
1892," excuses President Buchanan on the same ground that 
Holland excuses Lincoln. He says : 

"While Buchanan's message to Congress (announcing 
that he had no constitutional warrant to coerce seceding 
States) had been bitterly denounced a palliating considera- 
tion ought to be noted, viz: The fact that Buchanan knew 
that he had no reason to believe that if he had asserted the 
right and duty of war, he would be supported by either the 
moral or the physical force of the people. The almost uni- 
'versal feeling of the people in 'he North was strongly op- 
posed to any act of war. Their spirit was conciliatory." 

McClure, author of "Lincoln and Men of the War Time," 
page 292, says : 

"A very large proportion of the Republican party, in- 
cluding its most trusted leaders, believed that peaceable se- 
cession would result in reconstruction." 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Almost Universal Opposition to War on the South. Indiana 
Longs for Peace. Gozrrnor Morton's Desperate Fidelity. 
"I am the State." Congressman Cameron's Bosh on the "Life 
of the Amotion." Nicolay and Hay's Bosh on "Treason.'* 

Morse, p. 250, says: 

"Most of Lincoln's ministers were against the re-en- 
forcement of Fort Sumter." 

They opposed a re-enforcement because they knew a re-en- 
forcement meant war. Mass meetings were held in Northern 
States denouncing war, and messages sent to Lincoln, warning 
hiin that if he sent an army South he would find a fire in his rear. 

Is it not marvelous that men of today seem to believe it 
quite a credit to Lincoln that he alone begun the war in opposi- 
tion to the great body of the people? Morse and other Repub- 
lican writers seem to believe it redounds to Lincoln's glory, that 
he made war on the South in opposition to the people's wishes. 
They seem to forget that the basic principle of this Government 
is that the will of the people shall rule, not the will of one man. 

In "American Conflict," Greeley, p. 356, says : 

"The ■ Southern States had the active sympathy of a 
large majority of the American people." 



Chap. 25 Facts and Falskhoous. 169 

It is now the Republican's custom to say that this sympathy 
was caused by "demorahzation." By what right did the small 
minority force war on the large majority? Morse says: 

"Greeley, Wendell Philips. Seward and Chase, repre- 
sentative men of the Republican party, were little better 
than secessionists." 

Is it possible that Mr. Morse is so ignorant of the history 
of the Republican party as not to know that from its organization, 
in 1854, up to the first blow of war struck by Lincoln at Sumter, 
the whole Republican party were secessionists, and that party 
had labored for disunion, labored for secession? Is it possible 
that Mr. Morse knows nothing of the efforts the Federal fore- 
fathers of Republicans made in 1804 and 1814 to get New Eng- 
land to secede from the Union and to form a Northeastern Con- 
federacy ? Is it possible he is ignorant of the fact that such men 
as Senator Wade of Ohio, Abraham Lincoln, and other high 
lights in the Republican party long before the South seceded, 
made speeches declaring the right of the South to secede? The 
right to form an independent government? What right has 
Morse, or any man, to attempt to write history when he is 
ignorant of the most important facts of said history? 

Boutwell, member of Congress from Massachusetts, says : 
"With varying degrees of intensity the whole Demo- 
cratic party sympathized with the South and arraigned 
Lincoln and the Republican partv for all the country en- 
dured." 

No man worthy of the name Democrat can refuse to sym- 
pathize with a brave people fighting at desperate odds for their 
homes, their lives, their liberties. Was there one Democrat in 
all America who did not sympathize with the brave Boers of 
South Africa? Only imperialists and monarchists can fail to 
feel for brave men fighting for freedom. 

Boutwell says : 

"During the entire period of the war New York and 
Illinois were doubtful States. Indiana was only kept in line 
by the desperate fidelity of Governor Morton." 

"Desperate fidelity" here means Morton's desperate deter- 
mination to make himself absolute master of Indiana. This he 
did, by Lincoln's aid, and for two years ^Morton was able to say, 



170 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 25 

"I am the State." In Foulk's Life of Governor Morton, pub- 
lished 1899, Chapter twenty-two is headed by the words, "/ am 
the State," and RepubHcans of today glory in the fact that a 
man elected Governor of a free State in the Union was able to 
rob the people of that State of every liberty they possessed, and 
make himself their master for two years. The facts were these : 
The people of Indiana were weary of the war. Lincoln had 
refused to permit two commissioners from the South to enter 
Washington City. The people believed the art of diplomacy 
might end the war, and believed that Lincoln made no effort that 
way. All over Indiana, as, indeed, all over every State on the West 
and the South, went up the anguished wail, "Oh, the cruel war ! 
Oh, the cruel war!" The people of Indiana elected to the Legis- 
lature men pledged to use every effort to promote peace and stop 
bloodshed. Morton and Lincoln resolved that these peace-loving 
men should never act as legislators. By Lincoln's aid -Mor- 
ton's "desperate fidelity" made him master of the State for two 
years. Not a man elected to the Legislature was al- 
lowed to perform his duties. Nicolay and Hay, as all other 
modern Republican writers, justify Morton's usurpation of State 
power on the ground that "disloyalty was widespread through- 
out the West." Disloyalty means anything opposed to Lincoln's 
policy of conquering the South by bloody battles. Disloyalty 
is always the ready excuse for despotism. 
Holland, in his Life of Lincoln, says: 

"In proportion as people were treasonable they op- 
posed the suspension of the habeas corpus and denounced 
arbitrary arrests." 

To condemn despotism is always treasonable in the opin- 
ion of despots and despot worshippers. 

In the Life of Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin, p. 459, is 
this : 

"If we (the Republican war party) had had a common 
union in the North, and a common loyalty to the Lincoln 
Government, we could have ended the war months ago." 
This means that the people of the North so hated the war 
it impeded the wicked work of conquest. 

In Andrews' History of the United States, p. 95. the author 
says: 

"An absurd prejudice against coercion largely possess- 
ed the loyal masses throughout the whole North : the feeling 
was strong against all efforts at coercion." 



Chap. 25 Facts and Falsehoods. 171 

- It is gratifying- to humane hearts, even at this late day, thirty- 
eight years after the end of that woeful war, to know that the 
great masses of the North's people had such kindly feelings 
toward the South 's people as to oppose the bloody war of con- 
quest which Lincoln and Seward waged upon them. This 
knowledge will do much toward restoring friendly feelings in 
the South. On February 20, 1901, in the House of Represent- 
atives, referring to the opposition of the 60s to Mr. Lincoln's 
war, Mr. Cameron, of Illinois, said: 

"When the life of the Nation was at stake, men all 
over the North stood behind the firing line and encouraged 
desertion from the army. I thought if 8,000 or 10,000 Cop- 
perheads had been shot the result would have been less de- 
sertion." 

The reader must bear in mind that Copperhead was the pet 
nanae Republicans in the 60s gave to Northern Democrats, and 
further bear in mind that any man who dared to doubt the jus- 
tice of Lincoln's war on the South was a Copperhead, a seces- 
sionist, a traitor, all in one. I, for one, thank Mr. Cameron for 
his little item of information ; I rejoice that numbers of men, large 
or small, under the dark despotism of Lincoln's rule, had the 
courage to stand behind the firing line and advise soldiers to es- 
cape from the danger, the wickedness, of fighting a war of con- 
quest on a free people. When Mr. Cameron talks of the 'life 
of the Nation at stake," he talks without judgment and with- 
out truth. Never for a moment was the life of the Nation or 
of the North's Union Government at stake. The South never 
threatened the life of the Nation or of the North's Union Gov- 
ernment. 

In Rope's Story of the Civil War (war of conquest) he 
says : 

"During the winter of i860 Congress took no action 
whatever looking toward the preparation for the conquest 
of the outgoing States." 

That Congress well knew it had no constitutional or moral 
right to conquer the South. It had no inclination ; that Con- 
gress, as well as the people of that time all over the North, were 
in a peaceful mood and hated the verv iidea of coercing the 
South. ' \ ^ 

Morse says: 



172 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 25 

"Most of Lincoln's ministers were against the re-enforce- 
ment of Fort Sumter." 

They knew the attempt to re-enforce meant war. They did 
not want war. 

January 21, 1861, before an immense gathering in New 
York, an orator said : 

"If a revohttion is to begin, it shall be inaugurated 
at home." 

This was roundly cheered. Before Lincoln let slip the 
dogs of war, the distinguished Chancellor Walworth said: 

'Tt will be as brutal to send men to butcher our broth- 
ers in the South as it would be to massacre them in the North." 

It certainly was as brutal and as unjust. This brutality the 
Republican party committed. 

A large meeting in Faneuil Hall, Boston, was emphatic 
against war. 

"The symptoms," says Horace Greeley in American Con- 
flict, were that vast numbers were infected with such senti- 
ments. It Avas feared at the North that blood would flow in 
Northern cities as soon and as freely as in Southern, if forc- 
ible coercion should be attempted. Matters looked even 
worse for the Union in Congress than in the country. The 
prevalent desire was for peace, while some adopted seces- 
sion doctrines. Daniel Sickles, in the House, threatened 
that the secession of the South should be followed by that 
of New York City." 

On page 441, Vol. i, Nicolay and Hay, in their Life of 
Lincoln, give the following picture of the Northern people's 
state of mind at that time : 

"It will hardly be possible for readers in our day (1890) 
to understand the state of public sentiment in the United 
States during the month of March, 1861. The desire for 
peace, the hope for compromise, strangest of all, a national 
lethargy utterly impossible to account for, seemed to mark 
a decadence of patriotic feeling. This phenomenon is at- 
tested in the records of many public men, and shown in the 
words and example of military officers, in their consenting 
to shut their eyes to the truth that it is the right of a Gov- 
ernment to repel menaces as well as blows." 



Chap. 25 Facts axd Falsehoods. 173 

Were logic of this nature only used by the few it would not 
merit a moment's attention, but stuff of this flimsy and false 
texture is used every day by Republican writers and politicians. 
The "desire for peace, the hope for compromise" felt by the great 
majority of the North's people, Nicolay and Hay have tlie stu- 
pidity to say : 

"Marked a decadence of patriotic feeling." 

Patriotism does not mean eagerness for wars of conquest. 
War is the worst calamity that can befall a people, except subjec- 
tion to despots. The great body of the Northern people knew 
there was no danger threatening from the South. The South 
at that time had commissioners in Washington . pleading for 
peace, and because the North's people preferred giving them peace 
to giving them bloody war, Nicolay and Hay talk of "patriotic 
decadence." The future psychologist will decide that men 
aft'licted with the madness of war, men like Chandler, Medill, Sew- 
ard and Lincoln, eager to plunge two peaceful peoples into cruel 
war, were the decadents, the degenerates of our race. How fear- 
fully distorted must be that man's judgment who calls the lovers 
of peace "decadents." How crooked must be that man's channels 
of thought, who thinks it patriotism to uphold the government 
of bloody-minded despots. Patriotism! These men did not 
know the meaning of the word. 

When Nicolay and Hay talk of the "right of a government 
to repel menaces as well as blows," do they mean to assert that 
the South menaced the Government, or the people of the North? 
There is not the shadow of foundation for such an assertion. 
In the most respectful manner, w'ith the dignity of free born men, 
the South's commissioners prayed the Union Government for 
amicable adjustment of their partnership affairs, and expressed 
the desire to live in peace and friendship with their Northern 
neighbors, and offered to pay the South's just proportion of the 
national debt. With their usual trickery and falsehood, Repub- 
licans made every effort to inflame the minds of Northern 
people by representing that one consequence of the separation of 
the States would be to lose the free navigation of the ^Mississippi 
River. The fact is, as early as the 25th of February, 1861, an 
act was passed by the Confederate Congress and approved by 
President Davis to declare and establish the free navigation of 
the Mississippi River. If any man thinks these approaches a 
menace deserving to be repelled by bloody war, his judgment is 
distorted beyond the hope of remedy. 



174 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 25 

"Treason," continues Nicolay and Hay, "was every- 
where." 

The reader must bear in mind the fact that Repubhcan 
writers never hesitate to misuse words. To justify their own 
misdeeds, they call everything opposing those deeds treason. 
Opposition to their war policy was treason. As the principles 
of '76 opposed their war of conquest, faithfulness to those prin- 
ciples was treason. The large majority of the people in the 
Northern States opposed the policy of war. According to mod- 
ern Republican writers, these people were traitors. The ma- 
jority of members, in Lincoln's Cabinet at first opposed war. 
Nicolay and Hay excuse this on the ground that at that time 
the Cabinet members did not recognize Lincoln's greatness. Not 
until after Lincoln's death did those Cabinet members, or any 
other distinguished Republican, "see Lincoln's greatness. 

"The men in Lincolns' Cabinet," says Nicolay and Hay, 
"at that time looked on him as a simple frontier lawyer, to 
whom chance had given the Presidency." 

It is true that chance had given Lincoln the Presidency. It 
is true that he was neither the choice of the American people at 
large nor of the majority of his own party. The great major- 
ity of his own party preferred Chase or Seward. Accident gave 
the office to Lincoln. But if any man in his Cabinet looked on 
him as a simple backwoods lawyer, he could have made no great- 
er mistake. Lincoln was the least simple man of the age. Sim- 
ple means plain, open, not given to trickery or duplicity, unde- 
signing, sincere, not complex. In his suppressed Life of Lin- 
coln, Herndon says, "Lincoln made candor and simplicity a 
mask." Lamon says Lincoln was the shrewdest politician of 
the age. Lamon, who knew and loved Lincoln like a brother, 
says of him : 

"Mr. Lincoln was never agitated by any passion more 
intense than his wonderful thirst for distinction. This pas- 
sion governed all his conduct up to the hour the assassin 
struck him down. He was ever ready to be honored ; he 
struggled incessantly for place. Whatsoever he did in pol- 
itics, at the bar, in private life, had more or less reference 
to the great object of his life." 

Nature had bestowed on Mr. Lincoln two gifts which he 
used to gain power and place. The one, as Seward described it, 
"a cunning that was genius." The other was the gift of elo- 



Chap. 25 Facts and Falsehoods. 175 

quence of a peculiar order, inasmuch as its power and beauty 
seemed to be little appreciated by hearers, but readers were 
struck with admiration. Probably this was owing- to Mr. Lin- 
coln's shrill, piping voice, ungainly person and extremely awk- 
ward movements. Instance the Gettysburg address, now thought 
to be the finest specimen of American oratory. Lamon, who 
heard it, describes its'efifect on Lincoln's audience as follows: 

"Mr. Lincoln," says Lamon in his "Recollections of 
Lincoln," said to me, 'I tell you, Lamon, that speech was 
like a wet blanket on the audience. I am distressed about 
it' " 

On the platform, the moment after Mr. Lincoln's speech 
was concluded, Mr. Seward asked Mr. Everett, the orator of the 
day, what he thought of the President's speech. Mr. Everett 
replied : "It is not what I expected. I am disappointed. What 
do you think of it, Mr. Seward?" The response was, "He 
has made a failure." In the face of these facts it has been re- 
peatedly published that this speech was received by the audience 
with loud demonstrations of approval, that — ■ 

"Amid the tears, sobs and cheers it produced in the excit- 
ed throng, the orator of the day (Mr. Everett) turned to 
Mr. Lincoln, grasped his hand and exclaimed, "I congratu- 
late you on your success," adding in a transport of heated 
enthusiasm, "Mr. President, how gladly would I give my 
hundred pages to be the author of your twenty lines!" Noth- 
ing of the kind ever occurred. The silence during the de- 
livery of the speech, the lack of hearty demonstrations of 
approval after its close, were taken by Mr. Lincoln as cer- 
tain proof that it was not well received. In that opinion we 
all shared. I state it as a fact and without fear of contra- 
diction, that this famous Gettysburg speech was not regard- 
ed by the audience to whom it was addressed, or by the press 
and people of the United States, as a production of extraor- 
dinary merit, nor was it commented on as such until after the 
death of Mr. Lincoln." 

— Lamon's Recollections of Lincoln, p. 173. 

It is now said that Lamon's Life of Lincoln is fast disap- 
pearing from the face of the earth : that the same agency which 
swept out of existence Hcrndon's Life of Lincoln is fast pur- 
suing the same course with Lamon's book. Is this because Re- 
publicans do not want their apotheosizing romances about Mr. 



176 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 25 

Lincoln exposed and corrected, as Lamon exposed and corrected 
the twaddle about the Gettysburg speech? 

Before the South seceded, the foremost men in the Re- 
publican party openly maintained the right of secession. Wm. 
Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Sunmer, Wade of Ohio, Henr> 
Ward Beecher, Chase, Lincoln and hosts of others were among 
the number. In fact, the whole Republican party taught that 
the principle of secession was right and labored for disunion. 
Some of these men after Carolina and other States had seceded, 
continued to assert the right of secession. Phillips, in a speech 
joyously announcing secession, said: 

"Twenty years ago the men of the North resolved to 
dissolve the Union. Who dreamed success would come so 
soon?" 

In a speech in Faneuil Hall, Boston, February 2, 1861, Ed- 
ward Everett said : 

"To expect to hold fifteen States in the Union by force 
is preposterous. If our sister States must leave us, in the 
name of Heaven let them go in peace." 

The New York Herald, independent in politics, November 
II, i860, said: 

"The South has an undeniable right to secede from the 
Union. In the event of secession, the City of New York, 
the State of New Jersey, and very likely Connecticut, will 
separate from New England, where the black man is put on 
a pinnacle above the white. New York City is for the Union 
first, and for the gallant and chivalrous South afterwards." 

Holland, in his Life of Lincoln, says: 

"For months after South Carolina had seceded, while 
State after State was passing secession ordinances and were 
seizing forts and arsenals in their boundaries, neither Pres- 
ident or Cabinet or Supreme Court at Washington took one 
step toward coercion." 

Why should these high powers take a step toward coercion? 
The highest legal authority in the land had advised 
President Buchanan that neither he nor Congress had any right 
to coerce seceding States. Not only this, the great majority of 
the North's people had accepted that advice as right and just, 
and opposed coercion. In his "American Conflict," Greeley 
savs: 



Chap. 25 Facts and Falsehoods. 177 

"The active and earnest sympathy of a large majority 
of the American people was with the South." 

The Legislatures of Illinois and New Jersey were nearly 
unanimous in that direction. 

On page 513, Greeley says: 

"There was not a moment when a large portion of the 
Northern Democracy were not hostile to any form or shade 
of coercion. Many openly condemned and stigmatized a war 
on the South as atrocious, unjustifiable and aggressive." 

No Democrat that ever lived could think a war of conquest 
on free States right. This belief is left for men of the imperial- 
istic Republican party. 

On page 270, Morse says : 

"By the end of May, 1861, Mr. Lincoln looked forth on a 
spectacle as depressing as ever greeted the eye of a great 
ruler. Eleven States, with an area and a population and 
resources for constituting a powerful nation, their peo- 
ple in entire unity of feeling, and two-thirds of the North's 
people in sympathy with their secession." 

Reader, mark the two last lines of the above. The South- 
ern people in entire unity of feeling (in ZL^anting independence) 
and tzvo-thrds of the North's people in synipafhv with seces- 
sion. Yet, ten thousand times have Republicans tried to blacken 
the South's cause by the infamous lie that they were fighting 
the slave-holder's war to maintain slavery. The reader should 
also notice the title, "great ruler." which Mr. Alorse gives to 
Lincoln. When the principles of Democracy pervaded this 
country, men elected to office were called the servants of the 
people, not the rulers. Never yet have the people of America 
elected any man to rule them, but to serve. Lincoln was the first 
President who usurped the power to rule the American people. 
McClure, page 56, says : 

"When Lincoln turned to the military arm of the Gov- 
ernment he was appalled by the treachery of the men whom 
the Nation should look to for protection. X'early one- 
third of the officers in the regular army resigned." 

It is appalling in this age to see the judgments of men like 
McClure so distorted as to call opposition to war and love of 
peace treachery. Treachery to what ? To whom ? Certainly 
not to the principles of freedom. Certainly not to the L^nited 



178 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 25 

States Constitution. These demanded that the South should 
be free ; not conquered, not subjugated. Certainly not to the 
North's people ; these McClure, as other historians state, were 
of the same opinion as the military men who resigned from the 
regular army rather than fight a war of conquest on a free peo- 
ple. McClure makes the serious mistake of calling the small 
number of men determined on war "the Nation." He and oth- 
ers tell us that the great majority of the Northern people opposed 
war. This majority is entitled to be called "the Nation." The 
small minority which held in its grip the machinery of Gov- 
ernment had no more right to call itself "the Kation" than the 
Bourbon King had the moral right to say 'T am the State." 

General Keifer says, about March, 1861 : 

"Disloyalty among the prominent officers was for a 
time the rule." 

Disloyalty here means loyalty to the principles of '76. Hap- 
good says of the officers who resigned from the army rather-than 
fight a war of conquest on the free people at the South : 

"These men who had been favored with offices proved 
false to the hand that pampered them." 

Had these officers received commissions as favors or because 
they were expected to render good service to the country there- 
for? The word pamper means fed to the fttll. Does Hapgood 
mean to say that the President, who commissioned officers for 
the regular army, bestowed those commissions as favors and then 
pampered (fed to the full) those favored officers? Only a moral 
or mental pervert will condemn an officer for resigning rather 
than fight his own people. These Southern officers were edu- 
cated at West Point, as much at the expense of the South as of 
the North, and were under far more obligation to the South than 
to the North. 

Woodrow Wilson, in "Disunion and Reunion," has this : 

"President Buchanan agreed with his Attorney-Gen- 
eral that there was no constitutional measure or warrant 
for coercing a State ; such for the time seemed to be the gen- 
eral opinion of the country." 

Seemed f Did not Professor Woodrow Wilson knozv it was 
no seem, but long had been the actual opinion of the country? 
Yet Republican writers of today have the hardihood to charge 



Chap. 25 Facts and Falsehoods. 179 

a whole country with "disloyalty," with "appalling treachery," 
Morse says : 

"None of the distinguished men of his own party whom 
Lincoln found about him in Washington were in a frame of 
mind to assist him efficiently." 

The most distinguished men of his own party were unwill- 
ing to assist Mr. Lincoln in his wicked policy of waging on 
the South a war of conquest. These men well knew their party 
from its birth had labored for disunion, had advocated seces- 
sion, had held conventions and sent invitations to men of the 
South, urging them to help them break the Union asunder. 

Everyone knows the character of Charles Sumner, Senator 
from Massachusetts, one of the most honored and trusted mem- 
bers of the Republican party. No man, not even Greeley, more 
strongly opposed war on the South than Senator Sumner. 

Sumner said: 

"Nothing can possibly be so horrible, so wicked or so 
foolish as a war on the South." 

North American Review, October, 1879, p. 378. 

Yet Lincoln, aided by Seward, contrary to the wishes and 
will of the great majority of Northern people, did this horrible, 
wicked and foolish thing. 
McClure says : 

"Even in Philadelphia, nearly the whole of the com- 
mercial and financial interests were at first arrayed against 
Lincoln." 

In American Conflict Greeley describes (page 387) a tre^ 
mendous demonstration against the war made in New York, 
February, 1861. Greeley records expressions of the purpose 
not only not to coerce the South, but to aid her in case of wai. 
Such expressions were received with warm applause. In a speech 
of James S. Thayer it was alleged that these views had been 
asserted by 333,000 voters in New York in the last election. 

— C. L. Minor's Real Lincoln. 

As evidence of the widespread opposition to Lincoln's wai 
Greeley relates the following : 

"On the eve of the battle of Bull Run the Fourth Penn- 
sylvania Regiment of Volunteers and the battery of artillery 
of the Eighth New York militia, whose term of enlistment 
had expired, insisted on their discharge, though the Gen- 



i8o Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 25 

eral and Secretary of War, both on the spot, tried hard to 
make them stay five days more. The next morning" when 
the Union army moved into battle these troops moved to the 
rear to the sound of the enemy's guns." 

Greeley concludes the story thus : 

"It should be added that a member of the New York 
battery aforesaid, who was most earnest and active in oppos- 
ing General McDowell's request to remain five days longer, 
and insisting on an immediate discharge, was, in full view 
of all these facts, at the next election chosen sheriff of New • 
York, the most lucrative office tilled by popular election in 
the country/' 

No man more strongly opposed war than Greeley himself, 
but the despotism of the Lincoln Government forced Greeley to 
acquiesce in that war. 

Ex-Governor Reynolds, of Illinois, in a speech made De- 
cember 28, i860, said : 

"I am heart and soul for the Soutli. She is right in 
principle, and from the Constitution." 

This was warmly applauded. Such was then the opinion of 
the great body of the people in the Northern States. Three days 
after South Carolina seceded, Governor Reynolds said : 

"The Government itself, the army and the navy, ought 
to remain with the South." 

On December 9, i860, the New York Herald, in a dispatch 
from Washington, had this : 

"The current of opinion seems to set strongly in favor 
of reconstruction, and leaving out the New England States. 
These latter are thought to be so fanatical it would be im- 
possible there would be any peace under a Government to 
which they were parties." 

All this Republicans of this day call "treason." No Repub- 
lican of that day ventured to call the opinions of the great body 
of the North's people treason. 

In American Conflict, page 436, Greeley says : 

"Throughout the Northern States eminent and eager 
advocates of adhesion to the new Confederacy were well 
and widely heeded. It was understood that Governor Sey- 
mour, of New York, Judge Woodward, F. W. Hughes, of 



Chap. 26 Facts and Falsehoods. 181 

Pennsylvania, Price of New Jersey, all distinguished men, 
were among- those who favored adherence to the South." 

Not until after Lincoln and Seward held in their grip all 
the machinery of Government, and felt certain they could carry 
out their purpose of conquering the South, did the Republican 
party begin to use the words : 

Rebel! Rebellion! Traitor! Treason! 

The great numbers of the North's people who opposed the 
war suddenly became traitors ; any and every word of opposition 
became treason ; arbitrary arrests and imprisonments began, and 
a pall of blackest despotism spread over the land. Greeley's 
Tribune, April 15, 1861, had this: 

"The day before Sumter was surrendered two-thirds of 
the newspapers in the North opposed coercion in any shape 
or form, and sympathized with the South. These papers 
were the South's allies and champions. Three-fifths of the 
entire American people sympathized with the South. Over 
200,000 voters opposed coercion, and believed the South had 
tlie right to secede." 

Think of this, men of America! Think how easy it is for 
an American President elected to serre and carry out the will of 
the people ; how easy it is to make himself the master of the peo- 
ple, and force them to do his will, contrary to their own. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Why Grant Refused to Exchange Prisoners. Grant Compares 
Northern and Southern Soldiers. Desertions from Union Army. 
Riots, Arbitrary Arrests, "Suspects." Thirty-eight Thousand 
Innocent Men and Women Fill Northern Prisons. Civil Law 
Overthrown. Lincoln Unpopular. The People's Indigna- 
tion in 1861, 1862, 1863. The People's Indictment in 1864. 
ludiciary Oppose Lincoln. 

The lournal of Commerce fought coercion until the United 
States mail refused to carry the papers, in 1861. The New York 
Daily News continued to denounce the Republican party as a 
blood-thirsty set, advocating wholesale murder, as vultures gloat- 
ing over carnage, until the freedom of the press was suppressed. 

John A. Logan, in Great Conspiracy, page 551, describes a 
gathering at Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln's home, in June of 



1 82 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 26 

1863, of nearly 100,000 anti-war Democrats, which utterly re- 
pudiated the war. There was open and avowed hostility to Lin- 
coln in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, and of strong op- 
position in New Jersey. So violent was the hostility to war in 
Massachusetts and New York, the call for volunteers was un- 
heeded, and when the Government demanded a draft, the people 
gathered in crowds and fearful riots ensued. In New York City 
the opposition was so violent, the rioters so numerous, the city 
was terrified for days and nights. The houses in which the draft 
machines were at work were wrecked and then burned to 
ashes. The police were powerless to restrain the immense gath- 
erings of men and women who walked the streets day and night. 
The order for the draft was rescinded by the Washington Gov- 
ernment, the people urged to disperse and retire to their homes, 
which they did, as they thought, on the promise that there would 
be no more drafting. But that treacherous Government, as soon 
as the people returned to their daily work, sent a large body 
of soldiers to overawe them, and again the accursed machines 
were set to work, and again the wheels began to turn, until the 
required number of men were secured. In this way men were 
forced to fight a people toward whom they had no animosity, and 
for a Government they knew was blackly despotic. 

Before a Congressional committee Grant testified as follows : 

"I refused to exchange prisoners because as soon as the 
South's soldiers are released from our prisons they rush 
back into the rebel ranks and begin fighting again. When 
Northern soldiers return from Southern prisons either they 
never again enter the ranks, or if they do, not until they go 
to their homes and have a long furlough." 

It is easy enough to see the cause of this difference between 
soldiers of the North and soldiers of the South. The former 
were forced into a war they were tmwilling to fight, and millions 
believed unjust. The South's soldiers, every man, felt and knew 
they were fighting for their lives, their liberties, their homes, all 
that hearts hold dear. The very souls of the South's men and 
women were in that fight. 

Nicolay and Hay, Vol. VI., tell of violent resistance to the 
draft in Pennsylvania. Half fed, badly clothed, exposed as they 
were to the cold of winter and the heat of summer, in no part 
of the South was manifested any opposition to the war. In 
Grant's Memoirs he draws comparison between the feelings of 



Chap. 26 . Facts and Falsehoods. 183 

the people of the North and the people of the South during the 
war. 

"In the South," says Grant, "no rear had to he protected. 
All the troops in the service could be brought to the front 
to contest every inch of ground threatened with invasion ; the 
press of the South, like the people who stayed at -home, were 
loyal to the Southern cause. Vast numbers in the North 
were hostile to the war. Troops zvere necessary in the North 
to prevent prisoners from the Southern army being released, 
armed and set free by outside force. Copperheads of the 
press magnified rebel success and belittled those of the 
Union army." 

Copperheads were Northern Democrats. For the first two 
years of the war the successes of the South 's soldiers were so 
great and the success of the North so small, the latter could 
hardly have been belittled. The election of 1862 showed great 
losses to the Republican party. 

Nicolay and Hay assert that — 

"In all strong Republican States the opposition was tri- 
umphant and the administration defeated." 

This falling off of votes resulted from the people's hatred 
of the war and distrust of Lincoln. 

Tarbell, who simply worships Lincoln, in her Life of Lincoln 
says : 

"In the winter of 1862-3 many and many a man de- 
serted the army. They refused to fight. Mr. Lincoln knew 
that hundreds of soldiers were being urged by parents and 
friends to desert. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, 
and Illinois reversed their vote. Under the August call, 
1864, for 300,000 militia, the people were very uneasy.. They 
were weary of the war, weary of so much waste of life and 
money. Their feelings showed itself in an extensive form, 
in open dissatisfaction in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which 
broke out in violence over the draft for more men." 

The numerous arbitrary arrests and imprisonments in dis- 
mal and distant fortresses, of innocent citizens, greatly alarmed 
the people ; murmurs were deep but not loud. A reign of terror 
existed in the Northern States. Dissatisfaction made itself felt 
at the polls. The November and October elections in many 
States opposed the Republican party. To lull this feeling, Lin- 



184 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 26 

coin, Seward and Stanton, as usual, resorted to trickery and de- 
ception. Stanton became the ready tool to perform the mean 
and contemptible work of lying to the public. From his official 
office, 1862, Stanton wrote a letter, which he had published in 
the newspapers. The object was two-fold ; first, to excuse Lin- 
coln's arbitrary arrests, on the ground that a vast amount of trea- 
son (opposition to the war was called treason) existed in the 
Northern States. Second, to make the public believe that the 
resistance in the South was declining, therefore there was no 
further necessity to make arbitrary arrests. Therefore President 
Lincoln intended to order the release of citizens in the jails and 
forts. To carry out this lying scheme, Stanton wrote his official 
letter, which, being verbose, I will only give the gist, as follows : 
"War Department, Washington City, 1862. 
"Treason," wrote Stanton, "in the Northern States as- 
tounded the world." 

This was utterly false. The world was not astounded, nor 
did the world call adherence to the South treason. 

"Every department in the Government was paralzyed. 
Disaffection was in the Senate, in the Federal Courts, among 
the Ministers returning from foreign countries, in the Cab- 
inet. Treason was in the revenue and postoffice services, in 
the territorial government, in the Indian reserves, minis- 
terial officers, among judges, governors, legislators. Trea- 
son was in that portion of the country which was most loyal. 
Secret societies were found furthering the work of disunion. 
The judicial machinery seemed as if it had been designed 
not to sustain the Government, but to embarrass and be- 
tray it. The President thought it his duty to suspend the 
habeas corpus and arrest all suspected persons. The in- 
surrection is believed to be declining. In view of these 
facts the President directs that all political or state prisoners 
now held in military custody be released, on their subscrib- 
ing to a parole to render no aid and comfort to the enemy." 
Every word in this letter was intended to deceive. First, 
Stanton makes a big blow over what he called treason (opposi- 
tion to war) to justify Lincoln's illegal arrests; then he pre- 
tends the South's insurrection is declining, in order to make a 
decent excuse for Lincoln's pretense of stopping the illegal ar- 
rests ; then he falsely states that Lincoln has ordered the pris- 
oners released. To carry out the deception, Stanton issued the 
following order : 



Chap. 26 Facts and Falsehoods. 185 

"War Department, Washington City, Nov. 22, 1862. 
"Order First. That all persons now in military custody, 
etc., be discharged from further military restraint. , 

"Bv order of Secretary of War. 
(Signed) "E. D. TOWNSEND." 

Now, mark this mean lie. Lincoln had no intention of direct- 
ing the prisoners released. Order First was for the people to 
see, not for jailers to obey. Only two days after issuing the 
above order Stanton sent a secret order to the jailers, as fol- 
lows: 

"Washington, November 24, 1862. 

"Commanding Officer, Fort : 

"None of the prisoners confined at your post will he re- 
leased on orders of the_ War Department of the 22nd inst., 
rvithout special instructions from this Department. 
"Rv order of Secretary of War. 

"E. D. TOWNSEND." 

American Bastiles, page 767. 

In Rhodes' History of the United States, Vol. IV, p. 165. he 
has this: 

"One of the results of the elections of November and 
October was that Stanton issued an order 7vhich, after a for- 
mal delay, effected the discharge from military custody of 
practtcally all the political prisoners.'^ 

Rhodes makes no mention of Stanton's second order, sent 
to rescind the first ; he makes a mistake when he says the pris- 
oners were practically released from custody on Stanton's first 
order. Marshall, in American Bastiles, states that the second 
order prevented the first being obeyed, and that the greater num- 
ber of the prisoners in Forts Lafayette and Delaware (if not in 
all other forts) were not discharged until late in December, and 
some not until long after. In explanation of Mr. Lincoln's 
great unpopularity during his life. General Piatt says: 

"Lincoln was a minority President, and had no hold 
on the affections of the people." 

At no time did the living Lincoln have any hold on the affec- 
tions of the people. Even before he took his seat the great body 
of the people distrusted and disliked him. His adorer. Miss 
Tarbell, testifies to this. 

In \^ol. I., p. 398, Miss Tarbell says: 



1 86 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 26 

"Before Mr. Lincoln left Springfield for Washington, 
the North was desperate and helpless. All the bitterness 
and confusion centered about Mr. Lincoln. The rapid 
disintegration which followed Mr. Lincoln's election filled 
the North with dismay. A furious clamor broke over Mr. 
Lincoln's head. His election had caused the trouble. What 
could he do to stop it?" 

Had Lincoln been true to the Constitution and the princi- 
ples of '76, he could have stopped it in 24 hours. The people 
were afraid Lincoln meant war. Had he told them, as Buchanan 
did, that he had no intention of inaugurating a war of conquest, 
the uneasiness of the people would have vanished into thin air. 
Over two-thirds of the people greatly disliked and distrusted the 
Republican party, which was chiefly known by its fierce, vindictive 
hate of the Union, of the South, and of the United States Con- 
stitution. The majority of the Republican party distrusted Lin- 
coln. They wanted Seward or Chase. The latter would have 
made a far more humane, honest President than either Seward 
or Lincoln. 

In Vol. II, page 65, Tarbell says: 

"In 1861 a perfect storm of denunciation broke over 
Mr. Lincoln's head. The whole North was angry ; impeach- 
ment was threatened. Fremont was talked of to put in his 
place." 

This dissatisfaction did not cease or abate during Mr. Lin- 
coln's term in office. Even the dread of arbitrary arrest and 
imprisonment did not wholly quell the people into silence. In 
the army great dissatisfaction prevailed. 

In McClure's Magazine, January, 1893, p. 165, Tarbell 
says: 

"Many and many a man deserted in the winter of 1862-3 
because of Lincoln's emancipation proclamation. The sol- 
diers did not believe that Lincoln had the right to issue it. 
They refused to fight. Lincoln knew that hundreds of the 
soldiers were being urged by parents and friends, hostile to 
him and his administration, to desert." 

In 1864 the opposition to the war and to Lincoln was vio- 
lent and bitter, and almost universal. Tarbell describes the peo- 
ple's feelings of that year as follows : 

"In 1864 the awful brutality of the war came upon the 
people as never before. There was a revolution of feeling . 



Chap. 26 Facts and Falsehoods. 187 

against the sacrifice going on. All the complaints that had 
been urged against Mr. Lincoln broke out afresh ; the draft 
was talked of as if it were the arbitrary freak of a tyrant. 
It was declared that Lincoln had violated constitutional 
rights, declared that he had violated personal liberty, and 
the liberty of the press. It was said that Lincoln had been * 
guilty of all the abuses of a military dictatorship. Much 
bitter criticism was made of his treatment of the South's 
peace commissioners. It was declared that the Confeder- 
ates were anxious to make peace. It was declared that Lin- 
coln was so blood-thirsty he was unwilling to use any means 
but force. The despair, the indignation of the country in 
this dreadful time was all centered on Mr. Lincoln." 

Republican writers give positive evidence that every one 
of the above charges was true. President Lincoln — 

Had violated personal liberty. 

Had violated constitutional rights. \ 

Had violated the liberty of the press. ' 

Had been guilty of all the abuses of a military dictator. 

Had repulsed the Confederate peace commissioners. / 

Had refused to use any means except bloody force to attain 

peace. 

No man who reads Republican history can deny one of the 

above charges. 

At that time the people of the North did not know that Lin- 
coln himself had confessed to Medill, as related by Tarbell, that 
he, Lincoln, had begun the war at the demand of Medill. Though 
not having this evidence, the people felt in their hearts that Lin- 
coln was responsible for the awful war. Not until Miss Tarbell. 
in 1895, related Medill's confession of his part in the wicked work 
of deluging the land with blood was it known that Lincoln had 
knowingly, deliberately, of set purpose, plunged the country into 
war at Medill's request. Never should Lincoln's words to Me- 
dill be forgotten : 

"Yo}i asked for war; I have given you what you asked 
for. You demanded war. I have given you what you demand- 
ed. You are chiefly responsible for ail the blood that has 
flowed." 



Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 27 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

What a Battle Meant to Lincoln. Crcclcy Prays Lincoln for 
Peace. Rosecrans, Grant, Halleck on the People's Hatred of 
the War. Soldiers Dislike Lincoln. Judge Curtis on Lin- 
coln's Usurpaiion. Republican Writers, Rhodes, Morse, 
Hapgood, Bancroft and Others Land Despotism. 

As ilhistrative of Lincoln's character, General Piatt says : 

"A battle to Lincoln meant the killing and wounding of 
a certain number of men, the consequences to be counted 
like a sum in arithmetic. Lincoln faced and lived through 
the awful responsibility of the war with the courage that 
came from indiiference.'" 

Piatt does not mean indifference as to the result of the war ; 
that Lincoln was certain of, if only the Northern people would 
not force him to end it too soon but indifference to the suffering 
caused by the war. Piatt says Lincoln was by nature incapa- 
ble of sympathy. Greeley, on the contrary, seemed to have 
possessed the capacity to feel pity and sympathy for the agonies 
the war caused the people of the North, and even gave some 
little thought to the suffering South. When Lincoln refused 
to see or to hear the Confederate commissioners, Clement Clay 
and James P. Holcomb, Greeley wrote Lincoln a letter protest- 
ing against that refusal, in which he painted a heart-rending 
picture of the bleeding, bankrupt, almost dying country, Greeley 
said he shuddered at the prospect of more conscriptions, of fur- 
ther wholesale devastations and more rivers of human blood. 
He said to Lincoln : "There is a widespread conviction that 
the administration is not anxious for peace, and does not im- 
prove proffered opportunities to achieve it." So far as I can 
learn Greeley was the only prominent man in the Republican 
party who, during that dreadful war, and that still more dreadful 
reconstruction period, manifested the least desire to stop the 
devastation suffered by the South. As further evidence of oppo- 
sition to Lincoln may be stated the following: 

. ■* 

"General Rosecrans reported to Washington the exist- 
ence in the Western States of secret organizations of men 
bound by oath to co-operate with the Confederates, to the 
number of 400,000. Nicolay and Hay put the number at 
350,000." 



Chap. 27 Facts and Falsehoods. 189 

And the following in Grant's Memoirs, Vol. II., p. 323, is 
significant : 

"During August, 1864, Halleck informed me that there 
was an organized scheme on foot to resist the draft, and 
that it might be necessary to withdraw troops from the field 
to put it down." 

McClure says : 

"There was no period from January, 1864, until Sep- 
tember 3 when McCIellan would not have defeated Lincoln 
for President." 

Secretary of War Stanton, when at death's door, said to 
General Piatt: 

"When Lincoln visited the camps fears were felt at 
headquarters that the soldiers would insult him, and orders 
were issued to cheer the President when he appeared." 

Yet it now suits Republicans to pretend that Lincoln was 
almost adored during his life. 

The soldiers must have had very bitter feelings toward Lin- 
coln, if in a time like that they felt like insulting him. Though 
half fed, though ragged, though many were shoeless and nearly 
all tentless, the soldiers of the South would have received their 
President at any time with acclamations of joy, 

Stanton also said to Piatt: 

"All the time our huge army lay coiled about Washing- 
ton, a distrust of the Lincoln Government was insiduously 
cultivated among the men." 

Private soldiers are not fools ; while in the ranks under the 
rule of officers, they dare not talk aloud, but they talk to each 
other freely. The men in the ranks were not ignorant of Lin- 
coln's treachery. They knew that in New York the conscript- 
ing machines had been put in quarters where working men are 
most numerous; they knew that these machines had been put 
in these districts where the Democratic votes went largely against 
the administration; they knew how the working men revolted 
against this injustice, how they rose and wrecked the houses in 
which the cursed drafting machines were at work. The private 
soldiers had enough to resent and did resent. The millions paid 
in pensions have sealed their lips. Money seals the lips of the 
G. A. R. on the wrongs of the war. 



iQO Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 27 

B. F. Butler, whose very soul delighted in despotic meas- 
ures, in his book says: 

"During the whole war the Lincoln Government was 

rarely ^ided, but was usually imppded bv the decision? of 
the Supreme Court, so that President Lincoln was obliged 
to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in order to relieve 
himself of the rulings of the court." 

In 1862 Benjamin R. Curtis, of the Supreme Court, .wrote 
and published a little work showing Lincoln's usurpations, 
entitled: "Executive Power." 

"The President," said Judge Curtis, "has made him- 
self a legislator. He has enacted penal laws governing 
citizens of the United States. He has superadded to his 
rights as commander the power of a usurper. He has es- 
tablished a military despotism. He can now use the au- 
thority he has assumed to make himself ma=;ter of o^n- lives. 
our liberties, our properties, with power to delegate his mas- 
tership to such satraps as he may select." 

If this be true, and no man has or can deny it, Lincoln was 
guilty of a crime blacker than Benpiiiet Arnold's. "V'^t, mnrk 
how mildly Judge Curtis talks of that crime. He says, "President 
Lincoln can now use the authority he has usurped." Curtis, as 
every man in the Northern States, well knew that Lincoln at that 
time was using his usurped powers every day of his life. Lalor's 
Encyclopedia states that the records of the Provost Marshal's 
office in Washington show that 38,000 political prisoners filled 
the bastiles of America. These men were accused of no crime. 
of no oflFense known to the law of the land. They were Dem- 
ocrats. All Democrats were "suspects." Stanton and Seward 
were commissioned by Lincoln to arrest and imprison "suspects*' 
Rhodes thinks Lalor's estimate of 38.000 is exaggerated, but 
when one considers it was the nature of Seward and Stanton to 
revel in the use of power, and that Tr^ither of t''''^se r-ici e-^^er 
gave one sign of possessing the quality of mercy, pity or justice, 
one can more easily believe that Lalor underrates more than over- 
rates the number of victims. To show how strangely a worship 
of dead or living despots demoralizes the human mind, T offer 
the following comments on Judge Curtis' little work, "Exectitive 
Pozvcr," made bv John T. Morse, rn'thor of T^i'n-oln in one of the 
American Statesmen "series," published in 1892: 

"It was unfortunate," says Mr. Morse, "that the country 
should hear such phrases launched bv a Chief Justice against 
deeds done under the order of the President." 



Chap. 27 Facts and Falsehoods. 191 

Had it come to this, that an American President's illegal 
deeds shall not be criticised ? Does Mr. Morse think it ric^ht to 
conceal Presidential acts from the country, from the people? Thia 
is indeed imperial practice. 

In reply to the people's outcry against illegal arrests, Lin- 
coln argued that he had the right. His arguments were as fal- 
lacious and as shallow as any second rate lawyer's hired to de- 
fend a bad case. Lincoln's defense of his crime only made it 
the more odious. Some daring man had the courage to criticise. 
Of this, Morse coolly remarks : 

"It was undesirable to confute the President's logic on 
this question." 

In his History of the United States, Rhodes frankly says: 
"Mr. Lincoln stands responsible for the casting into 
prisons citizens of the United States on orders as arbitrary 
as the letres de cachet of Louis XIV. of France, instead of 
their arrest, as in Great Britain in her crisis, on legal war- 
rants." 

Lincoln himself boasted that he was responsible for all arbi- 
trary arrests and imprisonments. He alone was the foundation of 
power. On page 232, Vol. 3, of Rhodes' History, he remarks : 
"Mr. Lincoln's extra judicial proceedings were inexpe- 
dient, unnecessary, wrong, yet the great principles of lib- 
erty up to the present time have not been invalidated." 

The despotism of that time has so demoralized men's minds, 
many men seem now ready to welcome the advent of any coming 
despot. In an article published February, 1903, in Scribner's 
Magazine, Mr. Rhodes too plainly shows the deep demoraliza- 
tion of his own mind on the question of human liberty. Rhodes 
says : 

"Mr. Lincoln assumed extra legal powers, at the same time 
trying to give to those illegal acts the color of legality. Lin- 
coln has made a precedent which future rulers will imitate. 
What Lincoln excused and defended will he assumed as the 
right for rulers to follow." 

Mr. Rhodes' judgment is so demoralized by the worship of a 
despot he sees no danger in the precedent set by Lincoln of usurp- 
ing power. Not so with wiser heads. The Supreme Court saw 
and bemoaned the danger. 

"Wicked men," said that court, when rendering its de- 
cision on the Millegan case, "ambitious of power, with con- 



192 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 27 

tempt of law in their hearts, may fill the place once occupied 
by Washington and Lincoln, and if the right of arbitrary ar- 
rests and other extra judicial acts is conceded, the dangers 
to human liberty are frightful to contemplate." 

Why did that court couple the names Washington and Lin- 
coln together? The one a respecter of law, the other a law- 
breaker of the most unscrupulous stripe? Was that court truck- 
ling to the despotism that ruled the land? Was it afraid to speak 
out boldly, and denounce Lincoln as the most dangerous law 
breaker America has produced? To laud, to condone the crime 
of breaking laws, of usurping authority, is to invite the recur- 
rence of despotism, is to encourage wicked men to follow in Lin- 
coln's footsteps, and make themselves, as Judge Curtis said, "the 
masters of our lives, our liberties, our properties." 

Rhodes remarks : 

"It is an interesting fact that the ruler (Mr. Rhodes 
seems to be fond of the word ruler) of a Republic which 
sprang from a resistance to the English King and Parlia- 
ment, should exercise more arbitrary power than any Eng- 
lishman since Oliver Cromwell, and that many of his acts 
should be worthy of a Tudor." 

Many were worthy of the most despotic Caesar that ever 
ruled Rome. To the lovers of freedom, the fact Mr. Rhodes calls 
"interesting" is more alarming than interesting. It shows how 
easy wicked men, if in high office in this country, can overthrow 
civil law and rob the people of every right they possess. It fur- 
ther shows how men are prone to fall at the feet of usurpers and 
worship. 

Even in the darkest days of Lincoln's rule there were men of 
his own party who were less tolerant of despotism than modern 
Republican writers. The New York Post, a Republican paper, 
had the courage to disapprove of and to denounce arbitrary ar- 
rests and imprisonments of men for criticizing Lincoln's despotic 
acts. 

"No government," said the Po 7, "and no authorities 
are to be held as above criticism, or t>en denunciation. We 
know of no other way of correcting tieir faults, of restrain- 
ing their tyrannies, than by open and bold discussion." 

There was no lack in the 6o's of mean and contemptible souls 
eager and ready with open arms to embrace despotism, as there 
is now no lack of despot-loving men to beckon on the coming 



Chap. 27 Facts and Falsehoods. 193 

of despotism. E. C. Ingersoll, candidate for Congress during 
Lincoln's life, in a public speech, joyously announced the advent 
of despotism and the overthrow of American liberty, using the 
following words : 

"President Lincoln is now clothed with power as full as 
that of the Czar of Russia. It is now necessary for the peo- 
ple of this country to become familiar with that power and 
with Lincoln's right to use it." 

The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher welcomed despotism with 
a broad, smiling face and open arms. In a public address this 
so-called follower of the Christ, who taught the Democratic doc- 
trine of equal rights, spoke as follows : 

"I know it is said President Lincoln is not the Govern- 
ment, that the Constitution is the Government. What! A 
sheep-skin parchment a government ! President Lincoln and 
his Cabinet are now the Government, and men have now 
got to take their choice whether they will go with their Gov- 
ernment or against it." 

It would have been more correct had Beecher said, "Men 
have now to choose whether they will go with Mr. Lincoln or to 
some dungeon cell." Before Lincoln established despotic rule, 
how differently men felt and spoke of American liberty, of the 
danger of losing it. Daniel Webster warned the people against 
executive power. 

"The contest," said Webster, "for ages has been to res- 
cue liberty from executive power. On the long list of the 
champions of human freedom, there is not one name dimmed 
by the repr.oach of advocating the extension of executive 
authority. Through all the histories of the contests for 
liberty, executive power has been regarded as the lion that 
must be caged, it has always been dreaded as the great ob- 
ject of danger. Our security lies in our watchfulness of 
executive power. I will not trust executive power to keep 
the vigils of liberty. Encroachments must be resisted at 
every step. We are not to wait till great mischief comes, 
till the Government is overthrown or liberty put in extreme 
jeopardy. We would be unworthy sons of our fathers were 
we to so regard questions affecting freedom." 

Where were the worthy sons of our fathers in the 6o's ? ?\Iany 
were immured in the Northern bastiles. Those in the South were 
in the ranks bravely fighting to drive back Lincoln's invading 



194 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 27 

legions — legions sent down on a free people to kill, conquer or 
annihilate. 

Before Lincoln rushed on carnage, while Greeley in the col- 
umns of his Trihune was doing his best to prevent that awful 
crime, the Boston Atlas was doing its best to spur Lincoln on to 
make the rush. The following is a specimen of the Atlas' tone, 
temper and ferocity: 

"Draw the sword! Throw away the scabbard! Hurl 
100,000 men on the South to subjugate. Let us never cease 
until South Carolina is a desert, a desolate land sown with 

salt, that every passer-by shall wag his head." 

Why this worse than human hate? Why this fiercer than 
tiger's rage? Carolina had only done what the Republican party 
had long wanted her to do, had invited her to do. Soon after 
Carolina's secession, in a speech, Wendell Phillips said: 

"No man has a right to be surprised at this state of 

things. It is just what we disunionists have attempted to 
bring about. Thank God disunion has come at last!" 

- Was it possible as the war progressed that these men forgot 

their own advocacy of disunion? If they remembered how could 
they justify their insane hate of a people whose only crime was 
defending themselves against armed invaders? 

It has been said a thousand times that had Mr. Lincoln lived 
through his second term there would have been for the conquered 
South no horrors of the so-called reconstruction period. A care- 
ful study of Mr. Lincoln's real, not his apotheosized, character 
will not warrant that conclusion. Let the reader consider the fol- 
lowing facts and judge for himself: 

1st. Before Mr. Lincoln came into Presidential power he 
had openly, from the floor of Congress, declared the right of se- 
cession and the right of the South to secede and to form an 
independent government of her own. 

2nd. After Mr. Lincoln became President and held in his 
hands the reins of all the government machinery, at the insti- 
gation of such soulless men as Medill of Chicago, Senator Chan- 
dler of Michigan, Seward of New York, and the urgency of such 
South-hating journals as the Chicago Tribune and Boston Atlas, 
he not only turned his back on his own publicly proclaimed prin- 
ciples of right, but turned his back on the principles and issues 
of his own party, which had been delivered from a thousand ros- 
trums since the organization of his party in 1854. 



Chap. 27 Facts and Falsehoods. 195 

3rd. Yielding to the influence of bloody-minded men and 
journals, Mr. Lincoln inaugurated the most unnecessary, cruel, 
wicked war of the Nineteenth Centur}-. 

Never will it be forgotten that Medill of the Chicago Trib- 
nne bears witness to the awful fact that Mr. Lincoln began the 
war of conquest on the South. Never will it be forgotten that 
Medill of the Chicago Ti'ibune, as stated in Tarbell's Life of 
Lincoln, testifies that in 1864 Abraham Lincoln said to him, in 
the presence of Stanton, Secretary of War, and other public men 
in high ofifice : 

"After Boston, Chicago has been the chief instrument 
in bringing this war on the country. It is yoti. Medill, who 
is largely responsible for making blood flow as it has. You 
called for war until you got it. / have given it to you." 

Great God ! What a confession is this ! In all the black 

and bloody calendar of crime did ever man before confess him- 
self openly of so stupendous a crime as this? "Yon, Medill, 
called for zvar until you got it. I have given it to yoii." 

And this when these very men had proclaimed and promul- 
gated the lie that the South began the war ; this when the South 
had prayed for peace and an equitable settlement of their part- 
nership affairs. When this confession issued from Lincoln's 
lips blood was still flowing like water on battlefields, the rivers 
in the South were still running red with the heart's blood of 
brave men of the North and of the South. A thousand hos- 
pitals in both lands were filled with wounded, mutilated, dying, 
pain-racked soldiers, and the air all over America was thick and 
sick with the wailings of war-made widows and war-made or- 
phans. Oh, if the men who so wantonly begun that war had 
human hearts in their breasts, what anguish of remorse must 
have wrung and stung their consciences ! Yet nowhere have 
I found any evidence that remorse touched them for their awful 
crime. It is recorded that Lincoln suffered intense anxiety when 
the success of his wicked scheme of conquest seemed doubtful, 
but when victory appeared in sight his joy was unalloyed by 
any thought of the awful price paid for it. The men who best 
knew Lincoln testify that the sufifering of his own soldiers gave 
him little or no personal concern. In Lamon's Life of Lincoln, 
page 344, he says: 

"Lincoln's compassions could be stirred deeply by an 
object present, but never by an object absent and unseen. 
Mr. Lincoln was not an ardent sympathizer with suffering 



196 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 27 

of anv sort which he did not witness with the eye of the 
flesh." 

In view of the fact that Mr. Lincoln was of so plastic a na- 
ture as to be easily induced to plunge the country into war by 
such men as Medill and Chandler of Michigan, is it not likely had 
he lived through his second term the Medills and Chandlers would 
as easily have induced him to pursue their vindictive and tigerish 
policy toward the South ? President Johnson was in favor of the 
pacific policy it is said that Lincoln intended, but the Republican 
leaders in a body opposed him, and came near deposing him from 
power. Though impeachment failed, the Presidential authoritv 
was so curtailed, Johnson's administration was crippled, but iii 
spite of the leaders, Johnson showed some mercy to the South. 
He made himself in some degree a break-water to hold back the 
malignant tide of hate which the remorselei.s Republican leaders 
were almost frantic to roll over the people of the South. Their 
plan to confiscate the land of the Southern whites and divide it 
into forty-acre lots, and give a lot to every negro man in the South, 
was never carried out. 

When the people in the Northern States became alarmed at 
President Lincoln's bold usurpation of power and began to loud- 
ly murmur at his arbitrary arrests of influential citizens and their 
imprisonment in distant forts, John W. Forney, Secretary of 
the Senate and close friend of Lincoln's, through the Philadelphia 
Press, spurred on Lincoln to further outrages on the people's lib- 
erties. As a sample of Forney's advice, I give the following from 
the Philadelphia Press: 

"Silence every tongue ; seal every mouth that does not 
speak with respect of our cause (conquest of the South) 
and of our flag. Let us cease to talk of safeguards, of laws 
and restrictions, of dangers to liberty." 

In Bancroft's Life of Seward, published in 1899, he gives 
some account of Mr. Seward's illegal arrests. On page 276, Ban- 
croft says : 

"Arbitrary arrests and imprisonments were made to 
prevent, rather than to punish treason. Of course it zvould 
have been unsafe to be frank about such a thing." 

Despots never think it safe to be frank about their deeds of 
despotism. Men were not arrested and imprisoned for what 
they had done, but for what possibly they might do. On this 
Mr. Bancroft complacently remarks: 



Chap. 27 Facts and Falsehoods. 197 

"There is no occasion, however, to apologize for arbitra- 
ry arrests." 

None in the world. Nobody wants apologies. What is 
wanted is hatred, deep, deadly, undying, ineradicable, red-hot, 

holy hatred of despotism, not apologies. 
Mr. Bancroft says : 

"The least excusable feature of these arrests was the 
treatment of the prisoners. Month after month they were 
crowded together in gloomy, damp casemates, where even 
the dangerous pirates captured on the South's privateers 
(the South had no pirates) and the soldiers taken in battle 
ought not to have remained long. Many had committed 
no overt act. Many were editors and politicians of good 
character and honor. It (the power to make illegal ar- 
rests) offered rare opportunities for the gratification of per- 
sonal enmit}^ and the display of power by United States 
Marshals and military ofificers. Seward cannot be blamed 
for this." 

Bancroft here assumes that Seward, Stanton and Lincoln 
were not as likely to abuse the power of arrest as United States 
Marshals and military officers. The assumption is worthy of 
a simpleton. Every arrest ordered by Seward, Stanton and Lin- 
coln was inspired by personal or political spite. These three 
men were peculiarly vindictive toward any man they even sus- 
pected of opposing their cruel war policy. General Piatt, who 
well knew this triumvirate of despots, said of two of them : 

"Seward and Stanton fairly rioted in the enjoyment of 
power. They reveled in the use of power. Stanton was 
more vindictive in his dislikes than any man ever called to 
public station." 

Were men of this pagan nature fit to hold absolute power 
over the liberties and lives of their fellow creatures? Yet to 
these two unscrupulous, unfeeling mei>, Lincoln deputed the 
rule he had usurped over the people of the Northern States. 

"No man," remarks the simple Bancroft, in his Life of 
Seward, "will deny that Mr. Seward sought and was given 
too much responsibility." 

This is exactly what the writer of this does deny. Respon- 
sibiUty means the state of being answerable for a trust. Neither 
Lincoln, Seward or Stanton sought to be or desired to be an- 
swerable to any person or power for any trust they assumed. 



198 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 27 

They were not answerable. On the contrary, they sought and 
desired to exercise the powers they wrested from the people 
without accountability to mortal or immortal being'. 

In Vol. 2, page 254, of Mr. Bancroft's Life of Seward, he 
sagely says : 

"Some of the features of these arbitrary arrests bore 

a striking resemblance to the odious institution of the ancient 
regime in France — the bastile and the Ictres de cachet." 

Were Mr. Bancroft called on to describe two peas as like 
each other as peas can be, he would look from one to the other, 
gravely reflect, then sojemnly say : 

"Some of the features of this pea bear a striking resem- 
blance to some of the features of this other pea." 

"The person arrested," says Mr. Bancroft, "was usually 
seized at night. It was found best to take prominent men far 
from friends and sympathizers. They were usually taken 
to Fort Warren or other remote places. In some cases from 
one to three months elapsed before the case of the arrested 
man was looked at. As a rule prisoners were not told whv 
they were arested. The arrested men were deprived of their 
valuables, money, watches, rings, etc., and locked up in 
casemates usually crowded with men who had similar ex- 
periences. If any prisoner wished to send for relatives, 
friends, or an attorney, they were told that any prisoner who 
sought the aid of an attorney would greatly prejudice his 
case. Appeals to Seward, Lincoln or Stanton a second* 
third or fourth time were all useless." 

In conclusion, Mr. Bancroft naively remarks : 

"There is, however, nothing to indicate that Mr. Sew- 
ard was fond of keeping men in prison." 

It would be interesting to know what facts and acts would 
afford such indication to men of the Bancroft sort. Roman 
history relates that after a long life spent in evil deeds, in his 
sullen old age, the Emperor Tiberius left Rome and secluded 
himself in the Island of Capri, off the coast of Southern Italy. 
Either to relieve the tedium of time or to keep up the practice 
of cruelty, the Emperor would order his guard to seize any fish- 
erman or peasant, or other passer-by, and summarily pitch him 
from the highest cliff into the deep sea below. The unfortunate 
man was either drowned in the sea or torn to pieces on the jut- 
ting and jagged rocks as he fell. This done, the Emperor would 



Chap. 28 Facts and Falsehoods. 199 

placidly return to the privacy of his palace, and the next day as 
he took his morning constitutional, if he happened to see an- 
other unfortunate man passing- by, the kind-hearted old Emperor 
would gently order him pitched over the cliff in the same way. 
Were Mr. Bancroft writing the life of Tiberius, after relating 
the above little incidents, after describing the cries of the poor 
wretches as they fell from one jutting rock to another, down to 
the deep sea, Mr. Bancroft would amiably remark: 

"There is nothing, however, to indicate that Tiberius 

was fond of ordering men thrown over steep cliffs to certain 

death." 

On August 8, 1862, Stanton issued an order under which 
many thousand men were kidnaped, hurried off to the nearest 
military post or depot, and placed on military duty. The expense 
of the arrest, the conveyance to such post, also the sum of five dol- 
lars reward to the men who made the arrest, were deducted from 
the arrested man's poor pay while serving in the ranks. Is it 
any wonder that, as Stanton told Piatt, there was great dissatis- 
faction in the Union army, and great dislike of Lincoln among 
the common soldiers? 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Lincoln's Eagerness for Se,cond Term. He is Elected by the use 
of the Army. B. F. Butler's Story. The Crime of the Cen- 
tury. Republican Writers Unfit Teachers of American Boys. 
The Fox's Skin. 

Many men of this day fancy Lincoln's election to a second 
term proves that he was the people's choice, and was trusted 
and beloved by the people. In this busy age few men have 
the time to look below the surface and find facts. Some of 
Lincoln's apotheosis biographers boldly assert that Lincoln 
was indifferent about his re-election. Others deem it better to tell 
the plain truth on this question. Lamon says during his first 
term he was all the time anxious to secure re-election. 
In his Life of Lincoln, McClure says : 

"Lincoln's desire for re-nomination was the one thing 
uppermost in his mind during the third year of his first 
term." 

In "Our Presidents," page 184, McCIure says: 



200 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 28 

"A more anxious candidate I have never seen. I could 
hardly treat with respect Lincoln's anxiety about his re- 
nomination." 

After Lincoln's nomination for the second term, but before 
election, the prospects of his re-election became very gloomy. 
Many of Lincoln's friends predicted the success of McClel- 
lan. Mr. Lincoln himself v^^as almost in despair of re-elec- 
tion. In Vol. I, on this subject, Morse has this: 

"In Lincoln's party the foremost men, as the time ap- 
proached for a second term, so strongly opposed Lincoln 
they determined to prevent his re-election. They called a 
convention to be held May 21, 1864, in Cincinnati, Ohio. 
The call said: 'Republican Liberty is in danger. The ob- 
ject of this call is to arouse the people, and make them real- 
ize that while we are saturating Southern soil with the best 
blood of the country in the name of Liberty, we have really 
parted with it at home.' " 

Nicolay and Hay's Life of Lincoln, Vol. 2, page 249, says : 

"By August^ 1864, Weed, Raymond and everyone, even 
Lincoln himself, despaired of his re-election. Raymond, 
Chairman of the Republican National Executive Commit- 
tee, August 22, 1864, wrote Lincoln: T hear but one report. 
The tide is setting against us.' " 

In "Our Presidents," page 183, McClure says: 

"Three months after Lincoln's renomination in Bal- 
timore, his defeat by General McClellan was feared by his 
friends and conceded by Lincoln himself. Wade of Ohio, 
and Winter Davis, aided by Greeley, published in Greeley's 
Tribune, August 5, 1864, their bitter manifesto against Lin- 
coln, in which they charged him with having committed a 
more studied outrage on the authority of the people than 
had ever before been perpetrated." 

In Holland's Life of Lincoln, he says : 

"After Mr. Lincoln's nomination for a second term, a 
peculiar change came over the spirit of Mr. Lincoln's friends ; 
the thought became prevalent that a mistake had been made ; 
simultaneously and universally the friends of the Adminis- 
tration felt he ought not to have been nominated for a sec- 
ond term." 

Morse, in Vol. 2, says: 



Chap. 28 Facts and Falsehoods. 201 

"Recent local elections in New York and Massachusetts 
showed a striking reduction of Republican strength." 

In "The True Story of a Great Life," Weik states that Wen- 
dell Phillips made stump speeches over New England denouncing 
Lincoln, and holding him up to public ridicule. At Cooper In- 
stitute, 1864, before an immense audience, Phillips said: 

"Lincoln has overthrown Liberty. I call on the people 
to rise in their might and see to it that Lincoln is not elected 
to a second term." 

On August 14, Greeley wrote: 

"Mr. Oncoln is already beaten. He cannot be re-elect- 
ed. We must have another ticket to save us from utter over- 
throw. Grant, Butler or Sherman would do for President." 

Chase, Winter Davis, Wade of Ohio, Governor Andrew of 
Massachusetts, were in sympathy with the movement to prevent 
Lincoln's re-election. The editor of the Cincinnati Gazette 
wrote : 

"The people regard Mr. Lincoln's candidacy as a mis- 
fortune. I do not know a Lincoln man. In all our corres- 
pondence, which is large and varied, are few letters from 
Lincoln men." 

The New York Sun said: 

"The withdrawal of Lincoln and Fremont, and the nom- 
ination of a man who would inspire confidence, would be 
hailed with delight." 

In his apotheosized Life of Lincoln, Holland bears witness 
to the strong and general dissatisfaction of the people in 1864, 
and their desire for a change. Fremont's name was the rallying 
cry with dissatisfied Republicans. Fremont boldly denounced 
Lincoln. v j 

"Had Mr. Lincoln," said Fremont, "remained faithful 
to the principles he was elected to defend, no schism could 
have been created, and no contest against him could have 
been possible. The ordinary rights secured under the Con- 
stitutions have been violated. The Administration has man- 
aged the war for personal ends, and with incapacity and self- 
ish disregard for constitutioanl rights, with violaton of per- 
sonal liberty and liberty of the press." 

Miss Tarbell, who seems to have written her Life of Lin- 
coln while on her knees before his image in a sacred shrine, says : 



202 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 28 

"In the spring of 1863 a plot was formed and favored 
by all the most prominent Republican leaders to force Pres- 
ident Lincoln to abdicate, and to put Vice-President Hamlin 
in his place. Greeley thought he could use such pressure on 
Lincoln as would force him to step down and out. Lincoln 
knew of this plot. Mr. Enos Clark states that in the inter- 
view President Lincoln had with the committee of seventy 
men from Missouri, in 1863, at the moment the committee 
was about to leave he saw tears streaming down Lincoln's 
face. On getting to the door Mr, Clark looked back, and 
instead of tears, Lincoln was laughing heartily and joking." 

— Tarbell, Vol. IL, p. 176. 

This committee of seventy was anti-Lincoln. Next day 
Secretary of the Treasury Chase gave the committee a reception, 
and told them he was heartily in sympathy' with their mission. 
The committee went to New York and was given a great and 
enthusiastic meeting at Cooper Institute. William Cullen Bry- 
ant made a speech, and various distinguished men indulged in 
violent denunciation of the Administration and threatened Lin- 
coln with revolution. 

—Tarbell, Vol. IL, p. 178. 

In 1863 the New York Herald advocated Grant for the Pres- 
idency. The great majority of the Republican leaders wanted 
a change. Lincoln knew of all these efforts. 

"The despair, the indignation of the country in this 
dreadful year (1863) all centered on Lincoln. The Republi- 
cans were hopeless of re-electing him. Amid this dreadful 
uproar of discontent, one cry alarmed Lincoln — the cry that 
Grant should be presented for the Presidency." 

— Tarbell, Vol. II. , p. 199. 
Leonard Sweet, a loving friend of Lincoln, August, 1864, 
in a letter from New York City to his wife, wrote: 

"The fearful things in relation to this country induced 
me to stay a week. The malicious foes of Lincoln are get- 
ting up a Buffalo convention to supplant him. They are 
Sumner, Wade, Plenry Winter Davis, Chase, Fremont, Wil- 
son, etc. The most fearful things are probable. Democrats 
preparing to resist the draft. There is not much hope ; unless 
material changes, Lincoln's re-election is beyond any possi- 
ble hope, and is probably clear gone now." 



Chap. 28 Facts and Falsehoods. 203 

Lincoln himself believed he would be defeated. On August 
23, 1864, Lincoln, fully understanding- the danger, put on record 
his belief that he would be defeated. In a speech bitterly de- 
nouncing Lincoln at a Republican meeting in ifeoston, Wendell 
Phillips went so far as to say, "Lincoln and his Cabinet are 
treasonable. Lincoln and Stanton should be impeached." 

The Chicago Tribune denounced Lincoln as the author of 
the negro riots. So eager was Lincoln for a second term, so 
intense his anxiety, it showed in his face. Miss Tarbell de- 
scribes his looks during that period, 1863-4: 

"Day by day," says Miss Tarbell, "he grew more hag- 
gard, the lines in his face deepened, it became ghastly gray 
in color. Sometimes he would say, T shall never be glad 
again.' When victory was assured a change came at once. 
His form straightened up, his face cleared ; never had he 
seemed so glad." 

Yet in the face of all this evidence of Lincoln's unpopular- 
ity, it now suits Republicans to assert that Lincoln was trusted 
and beloved during his lifetime. 

Such being the gloomy outlook for the Republican party 
immediately preceding the Presidential election of 1864, what 
brought about the change? What lifted from Lincoln's heart 
its load of despair, and filled it with hope? The answer is easy. 
First came a few Union victories, which indicated that the poor 
Confederates were failing for want of numbers. Farragut capt- 
ured Mobile, Sherman was taking a holiday march over the 
South, burning and pillaging to his heart's delight, no armed men 
to impede his progress ; Sherman's unresisted entrance into At- 
lanta, Ga., his brilliant victory over the 15,000 tmarmed women 
and children of that unfortunate city, his splendid strategic 
feat in driving at the point of the bayonet the 15.000 Atlanta 
women and children out of their homes, out of the city — out into 
the pathless woods to wander about shelterless, foodless, and 
after Atlanta was tenantless, its streets all silent save where armed 
men trampled over them, Sherman's magnificent success in burn- 
ing every house in the city, private as well as public — these valiant 
deeds of Sherman's army served to expel the despair from Lin- 
coln's head and let in fresh breezes of hope. In addition he had 
General B. F. Butler and others of that calibre ready and willing 
to do his bidding, regardless of honor or honesty. In his book 
Butler relates how he obeyed orders, and. bv the use of soldiers, 
secured Lincoln's election for a second term. 



204 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 28 

Oh, if the souls of hberty-loving men of 'y^) take cogrnizance 
of the workings of affairs in the land the^■ loved, and many died to 
free, how must they mourn over the decadence of the men of this 
age — the men who glorify the shameful fact that an American 
President procured his re-election to office by the use of the Unit- 
ed States army at the polls! Hapgood's Lite of Lincoln con- 
tains the following unblushing paragraph : 

"Charles A. Dana testifies that the whole power of the 
War Department was used to secure Lincoln's re-election in 
1864. There is no doubt but this is true. Purists may 
turn pale at such things, but the zvorld zvants no prettified 
portrait of Mr. Lincoln. Lincoln's Jesuitical ability to use 
the fox's skin when the lion's proirs too short teas one 
part of his enormous ivlue." 

Think of it, men of America! "Jesuitical ability to trick, to 
deceive, to rob the people of their right to the ballot is, by a mod- 
ern Republican historian, not only condoned, but commended 
as of "enormous value." And any honest man, shocked at so infa- 
mous an outrage on the rights of freemen, the Republican, Hap- 
good, sarcastically terms "purist." "Purists may turn pale," etc. 
In his book, published in 1892, General Butler proudly relates his 
part in the infamous work of using the army at the polls. The 
story is this: The election day was November 8. 1864. Lincoln 
had sent agents to New York City to spy out and report how the 
election would go. The report boded ill for Lincoln's success ; 
in fact, indicated that New York would give a large majority for 
General McClellan. Lincoln, Seward and Stanton were alarmed. 
The latter instantly telegraphed General Butler to report to him 
at once. Butler rushed to Washington, and Stanton explained 
the situation at New York. 

"What do you want me to do?" asked Butler. 
"Start at once for New York, take command of the De- 
partment of the East, relieving General Dix. I will send you 
all the troops you need." 

"But," returned Butler, "it will not be good politics to 
relieve General Dix just on the eve of election." 

"Dix is a brave man," said Stanton, "but he won't do 
anything ; he is very timid about some matters." 

This meant that General Dix was too honorable to use the 
United States Army to control and direct elections. 

"Send me," suggested the shrewd Butler, "to New ^'ork 
with President Lincoln's order for me to relieve Dix in my 



CfiAi'. 28 Facts and Fai..sp:iioods. 205 

pocket, but I will not use the order until such time as I think 
safe. I will report to Dix and he his obedient servant, and 
coddle him up until 1 see prr^per to spring' on liiiii my order, 
and take supreme command myself." 

"Very well," assented Stanton; "1 will .send you Massa- 
chusetts troops." 

"Oh, no!" obj(,'cted the shrewder Butler, "it wont do for 
Massachusetts men to shoot down Nczv Yorkers." 

Stanton saw this also would be bad politics, so Grant was 
ordered to send Western troops — 5,OfX) good troops and two 
batteries of Naj^oleon guns — for the purpose of shooting down 
New Yorkers should New Yorkers persist in the evil intention 
of voting for McClellan. 

When the citizens of New York saw Butler and his escort 
proudly prancing their horses on the streets and saw the arrival 
of 5,OfXJ Western troojjs and the Napoleon guns, there was great 
agitation and uneasiness over the city. Newspapers charged that 
these warlike preparations were made to overawe citizens and 
prevent a fair election. Butler was virtuously indignant at such 
charges. General San ford, commanding the New York State 
iiiijilia, call(,d on Butler and told him the State militia was strong 
enough to quell any disturbance that might occur and he intended 
to call out his militia division on election day. Butler arrogantly 
informed General Sanford that he (Butler) had no use for New 
York militia; he- dicl n(jt know which way New York militia 
would shoot when it came to shooting. General Sanford replied 
that he would apply to the Governor of the State for orders. 

"I shall not recognize the authority of your Governor," 
haughtily returned Butler. "From what I hear of Governor 
Seymour I may find it necessary to arrest all I know who arc 
proposing to disturb the peace on election day." 

Butler well knew he was the only man in the city who in- 
tended to disturb the peace on election day. Butler's mean and 
cowardly soul gleefully gloated over the power he possessed to 
bully and insult the great State of New York, its Governor and 
militia officers — power given him by Lincoln, whose orders he 
had in his pocket to relieve General Dix, and take command of 
the army under Dix, and hold himself ready on election day to 
shoot down New York men at the polls to secure the re-election 
of President Lincoln. On November 5th Butler issued Order No. 
1, the purpose of which, he said — 



2o6 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 28 

"Is to correct misrepresentations, soothe the fears of the 
weak and timid and allay the nervousness of the ill-advised, 
silence all false rumors circulated by men for wicked pur- 
poses, and to contradict once for all false statements made to 
injure the Government in the respect and confidence of the 
people. The Commanding General," continues Butler, 
"takes occasion to declare that troops have been detailed for 
duty in this district to preserve the peace of the United States, 
to protect public property, and insure calm and quiet elec- 
tion." 

The citizens of New York well knew that the above was one 
tissue of falsehood ; they knew that Butler and his 5,000 Western 
troops, his batteries and Napoleon guns, were there to overawe 
the people and force the re-election of Lincoln. 

"The Commanding General," continues Order No. i, 
"has been pained to see pubHcations by some not too well in- 
formed persons, that the presence of the troops of the United 
States might by possibility have an effect on the free exercise 
of the duty of voting at the ensuing election. Nothing is 
further from the truth." 

Who, knowing Butler's nature, does not picture to himself 
the Mephistophelean smile which ornamented his visage as he 
penned the above, and the following pretty falsehood: 

"The soldiers of the United States are here especially to 
see that there is no interference with the election." 

If the reader cares to see the full text of this lying order he 
can find it in Butler's book, page 1097. 

On Nov. /th, the day before the election, after Butler had 
placed his troops and made all arrangements necessary to con- 
trol the ballot, he wrote to Secretary of War Stanton a letter in 
which he said : 

"I beg leave to report that the troops have all arrived, 
and dispositions made which will insure quiet. I enclose 
copy of my order No. i, and trust it will meet your approba- 
tion. I have done all I could to prevent secessionists from 
voting, and think it will have some effect." 

Secessionists meant Democrats who chose to vote for Mc- 
Clellan. 

On page 760 of his book Butler describes how he disposed of 
the troops to accomplish his purpose. On page 771 Butler gives 
a joyful account of a reception at Fifth Avenue Hotel tendered 



Chap. 28 Facts and Falsehoods. 207 

him in honor of his signal success in keeping Democrats from 
voting. Full to bursting with pride, Butler made a speech to his 
entertainers, explaining how, after the Union army had conquer- 
ed the South, her people should be treated. 

"Let us,'" said this willing and eager tool of despotic 
power, "take counsel from the Roman method of carrying on 
war." 

The Roman method was to make slaves of all prisoners of 
war ; to inflict upon them every cruelty pagan hearts could devise 
"Let us," continued Butler, "say to our young men, 'look 
to the fair fields of the sunny South for your reward. Go 
down there in arms ; you shall have what you conquer, in 
fair division of the lands, each man in pay for his military 
service. We will open new land offices wherever our army 
marches, dividing the lands of the rebels among our sol- 
diers, to be theirs and their heirs forever. Rebels should no 
longer be permitted to live in the land of the South, or any- 
where in the boundaries of the United States. Let them go to 
Mexico, or to the islands of the sea, or to a place I do not like 
to name. I know of no land bad enough to be cursed with 
their presence. Never should they live here again. 

This pagan speech was so rapturously received by Butler's 
audience, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (who a few years later 
was tried and found guilty by all the world except those inter- 
ested in whitewashing him, of breaking up the home of one of 
his parishioners and blasting the reputation of that parishioner's 
wife), made a speech highly lauding Butler's evil work and pagan 
principles and naming him for the Presidency in 1868. General 
Whitmore followed Beecher in the same strain of eulogy, all of 
which filled Butler to bursting with pride. But he sorrowfully 
relates that these high laudations proved disastrous to all the 
hopes he had cherished of promotion in the army. These fine 
compliments, says Butler, and the grand receptions tendered — 
"Were the most unhappy and unfortunate occurrences of 
my life. I should at once have repudiated the honor intend- 
ed. I should promptly have said : 'Gentlemen, you do me too 
much honor. General Grant ought to be our next President 
after Lincoln retires.' That w^ould have taken the sting out 
of the whole afifair. I could then have been put in command 
of the Army of the Potomac, if I wished." 

Butler no doubt thought his service in New York in keeping 
Democrats from voting would be rewarded by promotion. As a 
salve to his vanity he tries to have it appear that Grant's jealousy 



2o8 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 28 

interfered. Butler's vanity was immense. It shines out from 
every page of his hook. 

In the year 1903, in the city of St. Louis, Mo., two men of for- 
eign birth and from the lower ranks of life were found guilty of 
having procured fraudulent naturalization papers for some of 
their countrymen just arrived from Italy. These two men were 
sentenced to serve a term of five years in the penitentiary. The 
St. Louis Globe-Democrat, a stanch Republican journal, in an 
editorial called the offense of which these two men were found 
guilty— 

"A horribly atrocious crime against the ballot box and 
American citizenship." 

Reader, compare the magnitude of the crime these two men 
committed in 1903 with the magnitude of the crime committed in 
1864 by the President of the United States. Is not the one as a 
molehill to the mountain of the other? Yet the criminals of 1903 
were condemned to wear the stripes of infamy in a State peni- 
tentiary for five years. The criminal of 1864 is held up as a 
model for American youths to imitate. 

The following are samples of telegraphic orders sent by Sew- 
ard and Stanton to arrest innocent men : 

"Telegram. Washington City, Sept. 14, 1861. 

"United States Marshal: 

"Arrest Leonard Sturtivant and send him to Ft. Lafay- 
ette, New York. Deliver him into the custody of Col. Mar- 



tin Burk. 



'W. H. SEWARD." 



"Telegram. 

"War Department, Washington, Oct. 19, 1861. 
"Richard H. Dana, U. S. District Attorney: 
"Send Wm. Pierce to Fort Lafavette. 

"W. H. SEWARD." 

"Telegram. "Washington, Sept. 2, 1864. 

"United States Marshal: 

"John W. Watson is in Boston, No. 2 Olive street. He 
will to-day or to-night receive goods from Lawrence. New 
York, probably nautical instruments, care of Winer & Son, 
also clothes and letters from St. Denis Hotel. Watch him. 
Look out for the clothes. Seize them. Arrest him at the 
right time. (The right time was in the dead of night.) When 
he is arrested don't let him see or communicate with anyone. 



Chap. 29 Facts and Falsehoods. 209 

Bring him at once to Washington. The letters and goods 
must be seized by all means. 

"E. M. STANTON." 

In Rhodes' History of United States, page 468, is this item : 

"The New York World and Journal of Commerce pub- 
lished, innocently, a forged proclamation, purporting to be 
Lincoln's. As soon as they discovered the mistake they 
made adequate and apparently satisfactory explanations to 
the authorities, but President Lincoln ordered the editor ar- 
rested and imprisoned and the paper suppressed. A file of 
soldiers seized the officers and held them until the order for 
arrest was rescinded." 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

Mr. Vallandingham's Case. Unhappy Conditions of Northern 
Democrats. Lincoln's Public Declaration of Despotic Doc- 
trines. 

In 1863 Mr. Clement L. Vallandingham was the Democratic 
nominee for Governor of the State of Ohio. Vallandingham was 
an eloquent speaker and very popular in his own party. Being a 
Democrat he naturally opposed despotism, and frequently com- 
mented on Lincoln's illegal arrests and imprisonments. He also 
censured Lincoln for refusing to permit the South's commis- 
sioners, Mr. Holcomb and Mr. Clement C. Clay, to enter Wash- 
ington and make some effort to end the war by diplomacy. This 
greatly irritated Lincoln, Seward and Stanton. They became 
eager to have Vallandingham arrested and cast into prison. For 
some time the people had been greatly agitated and alarmed 
about illegal arrests, but as the exercise of power was the soul's 
delight of that triumvirate of despots, they could not deny them- 
selves such pleasure. General Burnside was commander of a 
large military force in Southern Ohio. It was made known to 
him that the President would be much pleased if Vallandingham 
was put where his voice could not be heard. Of course, Burn- 
side was eager to please the President, who held the power of 
promotion and dismissal from the army. A mass meeting of 
Democrats was to be held May i, 1863, at Mount Vernon, Ohio. 
It was widely advertised that Vallandingham would be the ora- 
tor of the day. Burnside sent two 'of his soldiers in citizen's 
clothes to hear Vallandingham 's speech, and to bring back a re- 
port on which he could be arrested. Of course, Burnside's two 



2IO Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 29 

spies got what they were sent for. That night, or rather the 
next morning at half past two o'clock, one hundred armed men 
stole silently along the deserted streets of Dayton, Ohio, toward 
the house in which Vallandingham lodged. Armed men were 
deployed around the house to stand guard at every exit. Knock- 
ing on the front door with the butt end of his pistol, the captain 
of the company demanded admittance. On entering, a score or 
more vren tramped through halls and rooms until they came to 
A'allandingham's bedchamber, wdiere he lay fast asleep. "Get up 
and dress," ordered the captain of the company, shaking the 
sleeping man. "What's wanted?" asked A^allandingham, start- 
ing up and rubbing his eyes. "Yon! Hurry! We take the next 
train to Cincinnati." When dressed, one soldier seized Valland- 
ingham's right arm, another his left, and hurried him down to the 
front door, where a carriage waited. He was rapidly driven to 
the depot and soon on his way to Cincinnati, where he was closely 
confined until May 6, then taken before a military court, put 
through the farce of a trial, found guilty and sent to Fort War- 
ren, Boston Harbor. Arrests of this arbitrary nature were made 
every day, or rather every night, but this of Vallandingham 
aroused more than ordinary indignation and alarm. Mass meet- 
ings were held, eloquent speeches made in Ohio, New York and 
other States. In the history of the long and woeful contest be- 
tween Despotism and Democracy I know of no more pitiable con- 
dition to which the latter has ever been reduced than that in which 
the Democrats of the North found themselves under the rule 
of the Republican party in the 60s. Sympathizing as they did 
with the South, believing as they did that her cause was just, hat- 
ing as they did the War of Conquest, yet feeling themselves un- 
able openly to oppose and fight the mighty machinery of the Re- 
publican Government, during all the four years' war Democrats 
were subject to the insults, scoffs, gibes and taunts of Republi- 
cans. They were denounced as disloyal, as rebels, as traitors, as 
copperheads. They were liable any night to arrest and imprison- 
ment. Thousands of their friends and relatives languished in 
jails, and many died there. Some Democrats, hoping to escape 
persecution, paid a half-hearted homage to Lincoln, refrained 
from criticism, affected to rejoice at Republican successes; but no 
professions of loyalty to Lincoln and his measures saved them 
from the scorn and contempt of the Republican party. Too well 
that party knew it was n6t possible for any man with one par-' 
tide of Democracy in his heart to believe in the conquest and 
subjugation of free men, free States. In the very beginning of 



Chap. 29 Facts and Falsehoods. 211 

the war the Republican rulers had cast a lasso over the head of 
Northern Democracy and tied it fast to the tail end of the great 
juggernaut car, which, loaded with munitions of war, was sent 
crashing over the Southern States, grinding under its wheels 
every living thing in its pathway. Not until after Lee's sur- 
render and after Lincoln's death did Northern Democracy shake 
from its neck that humiliating thralldom. 

All during the war the State of New York remained Demo- 
cratic, yet was forced to render its full quota to aid a war it 
knew was iniquitous. Nevertheless, having a Democratic Gov- 
ernor, the people of New York felt that the air of their State 
was somewhat less oppressive, to free men, than in some other 
States. Hence, New York men were more outspoken. A mass- 
meeting was held in Albany, New York, to discuss the Valland- 
ingham outrage. Eloquent speeches were made denouncing Burn- 
side's actions, an able address to President Lincoln was drawn 
up, setting forth the fact that Burnside had violated the iaw of 
the land ; that his arrest and trial of a civilian in a military court 
when the civil courts of Ohio were in full and unrestrained opera- 
tion, was an outrage, and deserved the severest reprehension, and 
requested Lincoln to rescind Burnside's order to imprison Val- 
landingham, release him from military custody and restore him 
to freedom. The Albany address and President Lincoln's reply 
tliereto being too lengthy for the limits of this work, I can only 
^ive a few extracts from Mr. Lincoln's written reply to show the 
fnen of this age with what cool, self-complacent conridence the 
first American despot propounded the Caesarian doctrine of ab- 
solute rule. Twenty of the first citizens of Albany were appointed 
to go to Washington and present the address to the President. If 
the reader desires to see the address and Lincoln's reply he can 
find it in Carpenter's Logic of History. 

In reply to the statement that the citizens of Ohio were 
amenable to the laws of that State, and if charged with any viola- 
tions of law Mr. Vallandingham should have been tried in a civil 
court. President Lincoln wrote : 

"Civil courts are organized for trials on charges of crime 

well defined by law. A jury of the civil courts too frequently 

has at least one member more ready to hang a panel than to 

hang the traitor." 

Men of America ! consider these words written by an Ameri- 
can President. Daniel Webster objected to military courts be- 
cause, as he said, "military courts are organized to convict." The 
so-called humane Lincoln objected to civil courts because on* 



212 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 29 

member of the jury might be more ready to hang the panel than 
to hang the man ! Lincoln seems to assume that men arrested by 
military officials must be guilty, therefore should have no chance 
of escaping conviction by trial in a civil court. Lincoln also ob- 
jects to civil courts because they only convict on charges of crime 
well defined by law. Military courts convict on the most frivolous 
pretexts, or no pretext at all. The chief thing necessary to mili- 
tary conviction is that some man in high place should desire the 
man to be convicted and put out of his way. In the Albany ad- 
dress reference was made to the suspension of the habeas corpus. 
To this Mr. Lincoln replied as follows : 

"The suspension of the habeas corpus was for the pur- 
pose that men may be arrested and held in prison who cannot 
be proved guilty of any defined crime " 

Reflect on these words, O, 3^ou men of America! You who 
forget that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." You who, 
with child-like innocence, rest in the belief that the future has no 
dangers for American liberties. But even the above declaration 
of Lincoln's is not the worst. 

"Arrests," wrote President Lincoln to that Albany com- 
mittee of Democrats., "are not made so much for what has 
been done as for what possibly might be done. The man 
who stands by and says nothing when the peril of his Gov- 
ernment is discussed cannot be misunderstood. If not hin- 
dered (by arrest, imprisonment, or death) he is sure to help 
the enemy." 

Is it any wonder under rulings like this that 38,000 arbitrary 
arrests threw 38,000 innocent men and women into American bas- 
tiles to languish for months or years, and many therein to die? 

Under the above definition of treason as given by Lincoln, 
what man was safe ? Is it any wonder a reign of terror existed in 
the Northern States? Under Lincoln's definition silence became 
an act of treason. A man with a sore throat, unable to talk aloud, 
if he happened to be present when the Lincoln Government was 
discussed, was liable to arrest and imprisonment in the most dis- 
tant fortress in the land. Strange as this may appear to the 
people of this age, blackly despotic as it certainly was, there was 
still a lower deep of despotism, and President Lincoln fell into 
that lower deep and dragged down with him the last shred of 
freedom left to the people of the Northern States. 

"Much more," wrote the President of the United States, 
"if a man talks ambiguously, talks with 'buts' and 'ifs' and 



Chap. 29 Facts and Falsehoods. 213 

'ands' he cannot be misunderstood. If not hindered (by im- 
prisonment or death) this man will actively commit treason. 
Arbitrary arrests are not made for the treason defined in the 
Constitution, but to prevent treason." 

That is to prevent the sort of treason never before known 
on earth — the treason of "ifs" and '"buts" and "ands" — the trea- 
son made and invented by Abraham Lincoln, the first President of 
the Republican party. 

In "Recollections of the War," page 236, Charles A. Dana 
records the arbitrary arrest, by order of President Lincoln, in one 
day, of ninety-seven of the leading citizens of Baltimore, and 
their imprisonment, mostly in solitary confinement. Not one of 
these men had committed or was charged with having commit- 
ted any offense known to the law of the land. Nor is there the 
least evidence showing that any one of the ninety-seven men had 
used the "ifs" and "ands" and "buts" so offensive to Mr. Lin- 
coln's sensitive soul. The fear that thev might possibly at some 
future time mutter or speak aloud the dangerous "ifs" and "buts" 
and "ands" caused the arrest and imprisonment of the ninety- 
seven men of Baltimore. In the darkest days of President Lin- 
coln's despotic rule. Governor Seymout, of New York, had the 
courage to condemn and denounce that rule. In a speech refer- 
ring to arbitrary arrests and imprisonments, Seymour said : 

"In Great Britain the humblest hut is to its occupant a 
castle impregnable to the monarch. In our country the most 
unworth}- underling of power is licensed to break within the 
sacred precincts of our homes and drag men out and cast 
them in dungeon cells." 

The men who wielded this power reveled in its possession. 
Seward is the man who, with a sardonic smile, said to Lord 
Lyons : 

"My Lord, I can touch the bell at my right and order the 
arrest of a man in Ohio ; I can again touch the bell and order 
the arrest of a man in New York, and no power on earth save 
that of the President can release them. Can the Queen of 
England do as much ?" 

"No," replied the astonished Englishman. "Were she to 
attempt such an act her head would roll from her shoul- 
ders." 

These three men — Lincoln, Seward and Stanton — proudly 
boasted that they held more power over the people of America 



214 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 29 

than any monarch since the reign of the Stuarts had wielded 
over the EngHsh people. No man need be surprised at the Re- 
publican party's open and insolent usurpation of power. A thou- 
sand times had the speakers of that party publicly declared their 
contempt and hatred of the Union, of the Constitution, of the 
laws of the land. 

The New York Evening Post reported that the great Repub- 
lican preacher, Henry Ward Beecher, in a speech, said to his au- 
dience : 

"I believe that Sharp's rifle is a truly moral agency. 
There is more moral power in one of these instruments than 
in a hundred Bibles." 

It was also reported that this same Beecher, on bidding fare- 
well to some of his proteges about to start off for Kansas, told 
them that to shoot at a Southern man and miss killing him would 
be a crime. , 

Of such inestimable value to liberty did Daniel Webster es- 
teem free speech, in an oration he said : 

"Free speech is a home-bred right, a fireside privilege. 
It is not to be drawn into any controversy. It is as undoubt- 
ed as the right of breathing the air and walking the earth. 
It is a right to be maintained in peace and in war. It is a 
right which cannot be invaded without destroying constitu- 
tional liberty. This right should be protected and guarded^ 
by the freemen of this country with a jealous care unless 
they are prepared for chains and anarchy." 

To prevent honorable men from using this sacred and God- 
given right Abraham Lincoln, the first American despot, caused 
the illegal arrest and imprisonment of 38,000 free born men and 
women. Thomas Jefferson said : 

"Those to whom power is delegated should be held to a 
strict accountability to their constitutional oath of office. The 
plea of necessity is no excuse for a violation of such oath." 
The "plea of necessity" is always put forward to excuse 
the evil deeds of despots. Modern Republican writers laud Lin- 
coln's violation of law and affect to hold him as a god above all 
human laws. 

Even John Adams, Federal though he was, opposed the use 
of arbitrary power. 

"The nature of encroachments on liberty and law," said 
Adams, "is to grow every day more and more encroaching ; 
like a cancer, it eats faster and faster every hour." 



Chap. 29 Facts and Falsehoods. 215 

Yet modern Republican writers admire and applaud Lin- 
coln's encroachments. The conscience of the conquering party 
has become so dulled, its reasoning faculties so befogged, its love 
of liberty so weak, it sees no danger in the precedent set by Mr. 
Lincoln. Yet that party well know^s that no monarch of England 
since the reign of the Tudors has dared play the despot as Lin- 
coln did. Charles the First lost his head and James the Second 
his throne for lesser crimes than the despot of the 6o's was 
guilty of. 

As illustrative of Mr. Lincoln's peculiar character I give the 
following story: When almost in despair of re-election Lincoln 
wrote General McClellan an autograph letter, which he sent by 
Mr. Blair, proposing to pay him (McClellan) roundly if he would 
withdraw from the canvass and leave the field clear for Lincoln's 
running. The compensation Lincoln offered was the immediate 
appointment of McClellan General of the army, and the appoint- 
ment of McClellan's father-in-law, Mr. Marcy, Major General, 
and the substantial recognition of the Democratic party. This 
was a brilliant bait, but the fish did not bite. General McClellan 
promptly refused. The story of the affair is related in Lamon's 
Recollections of Lincoln, edited by his daughter Dorothy. Mc- 
Clellan was the chosen nominee of the Democratic party at that 
time ; the times boded success to Democracy. Neither Lincoln or 
Lamon seemed to perceive the baseness involved in the transac- 
tion which Lincoln proposed. If Lincoln believed that McClellan 
was the best man to be at the head of the army, was it not base to 
make his appointment a matter of bargain and sale? Was not 
Lincoln's offer to bribe McClellan to betray the trust his own 
party had put in him when it nominated him for the Presidency 
as gross an insult as one man could offer another? Instead of 
seeing this, poor Lamon laments that General McClellan had not 
the patriotism to accept Lincoln's offer. 

Patriotism ! These men had ceased to know, if they ever had 
known, the meaning of the word. To them it no longer meant 
love of country. It only meant approbation of Lincoln's war of 
conquest on the South. Lamon seems to have thought that Lin- 
coln had as much right to divide the power he wielded over th; 
country as he had to divide an apple he was eating ; as much righl 
to bestow one-half of the power he had usurped as he would have 
to give away half an apple he had bought. Lamon looked on 
Lincoln's offer as most generous : 

"The division," says Lamon, "of the Roman world 
between the members of the triumvirate was not compara- 



2i6 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 29 

ble to the proposal of Lincoln to McClellan, because the Ro- 
man was a smaller world than the American, and it (the 
Roman world) was partitioned among three, while the Amer- 
ican world was only to be halved." 

Think of it, gentle reader! Think of any man outside of a 
lunatic asylum fancying he had the right to look upon this great 
country as his to divide and give away as he liked ! Poor I.amon 
blamed General McClellan for not accepting "Lincoln's generous 
offer." Before this occurred, Lincoln had tried to make a deal 
with Governor Seymour. Lamon tells the story thus: 

"The affairs of the country were in a very precarious 
condition, and were daily and hourly growing worse, and time 
was imperative. Mr. Lincoln had a telegram sent from 
Washington to Governor Se3^mour requesting him to come 
to Washington on very important business. Seymour declin- 
ed, and added that the 'distance from Washington to 
Albany was precisely the same as from Albany to Washing- 
ton.' Lincoln then sent Thurlow Weed to Albany empower- 
ed to make Seymour the following proposal : 

" 'If Governor Se3^mour will withdraw his opposition to 
the draft, and use his authority and influence as Governor in 
putting down the riots in New York, and will co-operate in 
all reasonable wa3^s with the administration in the suppression 
of the Southern rebellion, President Lincoln, on his part, 
will agree fully and honestly to renounce all claims to the 
Presidency for the second term, and will decline tmder any 
circumstances to be a candidate for re-election, and will fur- 
ther agree to throw his entire influence, in so far as he can 
control it, in behalf of Horatio Seymour for President of the 
United States.' " 

— Lamon's Recollections of Lincoln, page 213. 

Governor Seymour promptly declined. Was Lincoln's pro- 
posal a trap to catch Seymour? Did Seymour remember the 
nursery rhyme : 

"Will you walk into my parlor?" said the spider to the fly. 
"It's the prettiest little parlor you ever did spy." 

Did Seymour remember Vallandingham's case? Vallanding- 
ham had been arrested, tried and condemned for far less offense 
to President Lincoln than Se3'mour had been guilty of. Was it 
to arrest and silence Se3mour that he was invited to visit Wash- 
ington? At any rate Seymour was too prudent to be caught in a 



Chap. 30 Facts and Falsehoods. 217 

trap like that ; his answer to Lincohi's invitation, that "the dis- 
tance to and from Washington to Albany was precisely the same," 
shows he was not without suspicion. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

Was the War Waged to Free Slaves? Lincoln on the Negro. 
Van Daren. Lamon's Testimony. Wendell Phillips. Lin- 
coln's Letter to Greeley. Sezvard's Indifference. Grant's 
Feeling. Conzcay's Ezndence. 

Those who best know Mr. Lincoln assert that he not only 
was indifferent to the future of the African race, but disliked 
negroes as a race, and had little or no faith in their capability of 
development. At no period of his life was he in favor of bestow- 
ing upon them political or social equality with the white race. 
General Don Piatt, a fervent Abolitionist, sounded Mr. Lincoln 
on this question : 

"I found," says Piatt, "that Mr. Lincoln could no more 
feel sympathy for that wretched race than he could for the 
horse he worked or the hog he killed. Descended from the 
poor whites of the South, he inherited the contempt, if not the 
hatred, held by that class for the negro." 

In his Life of Lincoln, page 236, Lamon says, in 1846, in a 
speech, Mr. Lincoln — 

"Imputed to Van Buren, a Democrat, the great sin of 
having voted in the New York State Convention for negro 
suffrage with a property qualification. Douglas denied the 
imputation, but Lincoln proved it to the injury of Van Bu- 
ren." 

On page 334 of Lamon's Life of Lincoln is this: 

"None of Mr. Lincoln's public acts, either before or after 
he became President, exhibit any special tenderness for the 
African race, or commiseration of their lot. On the contrary 
he invariably, in words and deeds, postponed the interest of 
the negro to the interest of the whites. When from political 
and military considerations he was forced to declare the free- 
dom of the enemy's slaves, he did so with avowed reluctance ; 
he took pains to have it known he was in no wise affected by 
sentiment. He never at any time favored the admission of 
negroes into the body of the electors in his State, or in the 
States of the South. He claimed that those negroes set free 



2i8 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 30 

by the army were poor spirited, lazy and slothful ; that they 
could only be made soldiers by force, and would not be ever 
willing laborers at all ; that they seemed to have no interest in 
the cause of their own race., but were as docile in the service 
of the rebellion as the mule that ploughed the fields or drew 
the baggage trains. As a people, Lincoln thought negroes 
would only be useful to those who were at the same time their 
masters, and the foes of those who sought their good. He 
wanted the negro protected as women and children are. He 
had no notion of extending the privilege of governing to the 
negro. Lincoln always contended that the cheapest way of 
getting rid of the negro was for the Nation to buy the slaves 
and send them out of the country." 

General Don Piatt says : 

"Lincoln well knew that the North was not fighting to 
free slaves, nor was the South fighting to preserve slavery. 
In that awful conflict slavery went to pieces." 

Lincoln himself gives testimony on this slavery question. 
Herndon said when Lincoln issued the emancipation proclama- 
tion there was no heart in it. Every one remembers Lincoln's 
letter to Greeley, in which he frankly declared that whatever he 
did for or with negroes, he did to help him save the Union ; that 
is, to conquer the South. 

"My paramount object," wrote Lincoln to Greeley, "is to 
save the Union, and not either destroy or save slavery. If 1 
could save the Union without freeing the slaves, I would do 
it. If I could save the L^nion by freeing some and leaving 
others in slavery, I would do it. If I could save it by freeing 
all, I would do that. What I do about slavery and the color- 
ed race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union." 

Yet this man had been put in office by a party which hated 
and despised the Union. On another occasion Lincoln wrote: 
"I have no purpose to introduce political or social equal- 
ity between the white and black race. There is a phys- 
ical difference between the two which probably will forever 
forbid their living together on the same footing of equality. 
I, as well as any other man, am in favor of the race to which 
I belong having the superior position. I have never said any- 
thing to the contrary." 

Simon Cameron, Lincoln's first Secretary of War, wrote 
General Butler, then in New Orleans : 



Chap. 30 Facts and Falsehoods. 219 

"President Lincoln desires the right to hold slaves to be 
fully recognized. The war is prosecuted for the Union, hence 
no question concerning slavery will arise." 

In his inauguration Lincoln said : 

"I have no lawful right to interfere with slavery directly 
or indirectly; I have no inclination to do so." 

Mr. Wendell Phillips said that Lincoln was badgered into 
issuing the emancipation proclamation, and that after it was 
issued, Lincoln said it was the greatest folly of his life. That 
much lauded instrument speaks for itself. It plainly proves that 
its writer had not the least heart in the business of freeing slaves. 
Had he taken any joy in the work, would he have bestowed the 
boon of freedom only on those negroes still under the rule of the 
Confederacy, leaving the large number in those States and parts 
of States under his own control in the bondage they w^ere born in ? 
When General Grant was Colonel of the Twenty-first Illi- 
nois Infantry he expressed himself plainly on the negro question : 
"The sole object of this war," said Grant, "is to restore 
the Union. Should I become convinced it has any other ob- 
ject, or that the Government designs using its soldiers to exe- 
cute the wishes of the Abolitionists, I pledge you my honor 
as a man and a soldier I would resign my commission and 
carry my sword to the other side." 

— Democratic Speaker's Handbook, p. 33. 
On May 29, 1863, Mr. F. A. Conway, Congressman from 
Kansas, wrote to the New York Tribune, as follows: 

"The independence of the South is now an established 
fact. The war for the future becomes simply an instrument 
in the hands of the political managers to effect results to their 
own personal ends unfavorable to the cause of freedom. It is 
now assumed that the Union is the object paramount over 
every other consideration. Every institution is now of small 
importance. Slavery must give way, or not give way ; must 
be strangled, or given new lease of life with increased power, 
just as the exigencies of the North may require. This has 
now become the doctrine of life-long Abolitionists. Gerritt 
Smith, Raymond and other men want power and care for 
nothing else. For the sake of poiver they zrould kill all the 
white people in the South, or take them to tlieir arms. They 
would free all the slaves or make their bondage still more 
helpless; they would do anything wicked for the sakt of 
power." 



220 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 31 

■ Never were truer words spoken or written than these by that 
zealous Abolition Congressman Conway of Kansas. In Hern- 
don's suppressed Life of Lincoln, he said : 

"When Lincoln issued the proclamation to free the slaves 
there was no heart in the act." 

One of the boldest Republican organs, in 1880, the Lcmars 
(Iowa) Sentinel, frankly betrays its party's real feeling toward 
the negro race, as follows : 

"As an office seeker, the negro has more brass in a square 
inch of his face, more rapaciousness for office, than his 
barbarian masters ever dared to possess. The Southern brig- 
adier wants office and place, but he is willing to fight for 
!hem, or vote for them ; at the drop of the hat he will shoot 
and cut for them ; he does not whine like a whipped cur, or 
demand like a beggar on horseback, as the nigger does. Let 
the nigger first learn to vote before he asks for office. The 
brazen-jawed nigger is but a trifle less assuming, insolent and 
imperious in his demands than the lantern-jawed brigadiers ; 
the educated nigger is a more capacious liar than his barba- 
rian masters ever were, or dared to be 

"The greatest mistake the Republican party ever made 
was taking the nigger at a single bound and placing on his 
impenetrable skull the crown of suffrage. It is a wrong to 
him and to us to let him wield the ballot. The nigger is nec- 
essarily an ignoramus. The free nigger, we repeat, is a 
fraud." 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

The Reconstruction Period — Hate and Cruelty. 

The full horrors of this dreadful period have never been por- 
trayed. God knows the South was hated enough before and dur- 
ing the war, but after the conquest, as she lay disarmed at the 
feet of her conquerors, wounded almost unto death, the vengeful 
ferocity of Republicans was something to Avonder at. The 
events of that period deserve a volume to themselves. I shall only 
say a few words on the subject. Wendell Phillips, insane hater 
of the South though he was, sometimes had the honesty to speak 
plainly of his own party. Witness the following: 

"The Republican party," said Phillips, "is not inspired 
with any humane desire to protect the negro. It uses the 



Chap. 31 Facts and Falsehoods. 221 

bloody shirt for office, and once there, only laughs at it. Today 
our greatest danger is the Republican party. Wolves in 
sheep's clothing ! Hypocrites ! I hail their coming defeat, 
looking forward to it as the dawning of a glorious day." 

From early manhood General Grant was afflicted with the 
drink disease. Phillips said : 

"Grant can never stand before a bottle of whiskey with- 
out falling down." 

General Piatt, in "Memories of the Men Who Saved the 
l"^nion," says: 

"Grant's habit of drink lost us thousands and thousands 
of patriotic lives. The attempt to conceal this is not only 
pitiable, but hopeless." 

The terrible slaughter of Union soldiers at Cold Harbor was 
charged to Grant's drunkenness. Major-General Wm. F. Smith, 
in a confidential letter to Senator Foote. July 30, 1864, states that 
soon after Grant had taken a pledge to drink nothing intoxicating, 
he (Grant) called at his (Smith's) headquarters, and asked for 
whiskey, and drank so often he went away drunk, and General 
Butler saw hinv. A short while before this Grant had written to 
Washington asking that General r>utler be relieved from that de- 
partment, because he (Grant) "could not trust Butler zvith the 
command of the troops in the movements about to be made." In- 
structions were sent to Grant to remove Butler. Butler heard of 
this and hurried to see Grant. General Smith wrote Senator Foote 
that he heard direct from Grant's headquarters, and also from 
another source, that General Butler threatened Grant that he 
would expose his drunken habits if the order was not revoked. 
The order was revoked, and Butler remained in command, al- 
though Grant had said he was unfit to be trusted. 

General Piatt says : 

"Grant has his monument in the hearts of Republicans; 
for that he lent his name to secure the perpetuation of Repub- 
lican power." 

Grant did not lend his name to secure the perpetuation of Re- 
publican power, but to secure the Presidency for himself. When 
Grant came to believe that the Republicans who opposed Johnson 
and his policy would succeed in deposing Johnson, he abandoned 
Johnson and his policy (the very policy he himself had recom- 
mended to Johnson), rushed into the camp of Johnson's bitter 
foes, and became the tool and agent of the Republican leaders to 



222 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 31 

carry out their cruel policy toward the people of the South. 
General Piatt testifies concerning Grant thus : 

"Secretary Stanton had no hesitation in expressing his 
contempt for Grant — contempt caused by the following event : 
When the army of the Cumberland was cooped up in Chatta- 
nooga, with starvation or surrender staring them in the face, 
Stanton hurried to meet Grant at Louisville and consult with 
him as to the best means of relieving our forces. The day 
on which the two men met was given to these considerations, 
and the wire between Chattanooga and Louisville trembled 
with continuous messages. When night came the two men 
separated with the understanding that after an hour's rest and 
refreshment they should again meet and continue their labor. 
Grant was to leave next morning for Chattanooga. When the 
time came for the meeting Grant did not appear. Stanton 
waited impatiently, receiving the telegrams that continued to 
pour in, and at last sent for Grant, who could not be found. 
Annoyed and disgusted, Stanton had the theatres searched 
without success. At last, long after midnight. General Grant 
was found in a place and under such circumstances not neces- 
sary to relate to those zvho knczv his habits. Had Grant been 
of a sensitive nature, under Stanton's savage reprimand, he 
would have then and there disappeared from history." 

Grant came near being arrested by Halleck more than once. 
In a telegram to McClellan, Halleck said : 

"A rumor has reached me that Grant has resumed his 
former bad habits. If so it will account for his oft repeated 
neglect of my oft repeated orders. I do not deem it advisable 
to arrest him at present." 

In a telegram to Grant, Halleck said : 

"Your neglect of repeated orders has caused great dissat- 
isfaction and seriously interfered with military plans. Your 
going to Nashville v/ithout authority, and when your presence 
with your troops was of the greatest importance, was a mat- 
ter of serious complaint at Washington, so much so that I 
was advised to arrest you on your return." 

Yet to this alcohol-soaked man — this man who could not see 
a bottle of whiskey without falling down — a Republican Congress 
gave absolute power over the Southern States. There was no es- 
cape from any decree issued from Grant's whiskey-soaked brain. 
He had power to delegate his rule to any man under him. Grant 
said to the military commanders under him : 



Chap. 31 Facts and Falsehoods. 223 

•"The law makes the district commanders their own ni- 
terpreters of their power under it." 

This drunken despot wielded absolute and irresponsible pow- 
er over the unarmed people of the South. A few samples of the 
methods Grant's sub-despots used will illustrate the South's 
condition : 

"Headquarters Fourth Military District of Mississippi. 

"Vicksburg:, Miss., June 15, 1868. 
"General Order No. 123. 
"First. — Major-Gen. Adelbert Ames is appointed Gov- 
ernor of the State of Mississippi, vice Benjamin G. Hum- 
phreys, hereby removed. 

"Second. — Captain Jasper Myers is appointed Attorney 
General of the State of Mississippi, vice C. Hooker, hereby 
removed. 

"Third. — The officers appointed above will repair with- 
out delay to Jackson, and enter immediately upon the duties 
of their respective offices." 

"Headquarters Third Military District, Georgia, Alabama 
and Florida. 

"Atlanta, Ga., January 13, 1868. 
"Charles J. Jenkins, Milledgeville, Ga. 

"Sir: — I have no alternative but to remove you from 
your office, as you will see by the enclosed order. I do not 
deem myself called upon to answer the arguments in your 

letter. 

"GEORGE MEADE, Major-Gencral Commanding." 

No despot ever felt called upon to answer arguments. Force 
is the only argument despots use or can understand. Mr. John 
Imes was the Treasurer of Georgia. Meade wrote him as follows : 

"Mr. John Jmes: 

"Sir : — I am compelled to remove you from office, as you 
will see I have done by the enclosed order. 

"GEORGE MEADE, Major-General Commanding." 

Grant's sub-despot over South Carolina wrote as follows: 
"Headquarters. 

"Charleston, S. C, Oct. 16, 1867. 
"Judge Aldrich has been suspended, and will not be per- 
mitted to Mbld any court in his circuit. See special Order No. 
183, of this date. By command of 

"BREVET MAJOR GENERAL E. R. C. CANBY." 



224 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 31 

Does the reader want to know how the sub-despots appointed 
by Grant ruled the people of the South? To this day that rule 
is referred to as the "horrors of the reconstruction period." 
After the military had full possession of all tlie offices of the 
civil courts, from the highest down, malignant bullies 
everywhere in power, a reign of terror set in almost 
equal to the awful da}'s of the French Revolution. Ev- 
ery day numbers of the best citizens arrested on the 
most frivolous charges, or no charge whatever, hands 
and feet fettered as felons, dragged hundreds of miles away from 
homes and friends, were thrown into dungeon cells, in which they 
lay months or years in solitary confinement unless death ended 
their suffering. These prisoners w^ere not permitted to see 
friends, relatives or counselor-at-law. During their long impris- 
onment, miserably fed, cursed, abused by jailers, tried by military 
commissioners, many died, many were, condemned and sentenced 
for life to the Dry Tortugas — condemned on evidence no court of 
justice would have received. It was noticed that the. military 
courts seemed to feel special antipathy to young men, to beardless 
boys — sons of the best citizens. The suffering of these youths in 
prison, their tortures in the Dry Tortugas, they knew would in- 
flict the keenest anguish on the hearts of parents and relatives. 
The Montgomery (Ala,) Mail, speaking of the large number of 
innocent young men sent to the Dry Tortugas, thus describes that 
place of torment: 

"At the Dry Tortugas the prisoners' heads are shaved. 
They have to labor under a torrid sun upon a sand bank in 
the midst of the ocean, with balls and chains about their legs. 
The men who command the prisoners are amenable to the 
laws of neither God or man. Col. Grental, a soldier, was tied 
up by his thumbs, and treated with every species of cruelty 
and barbarity. The laws are silent and newspapers dumb. 
The prisoner who enters the Dry Tortugas leaves liberty, 
justice, hope, behind him. Large numbers of young South- 
ern men, for any or no offense, in ^^■^at is called the recon- 
struction period, are arrested, go t" r )i:gh the farce of a 
drumhead trial, presided over by mcr; v. ho take a fiendish de- 
light in torturing any Southern man or woman, nearly always 
found guilty, and sentenced for life to the Dry Tortugas. The 
lips of the Alabama journals are pinned togethe*' with bayo- 
nets. Our hands are fastened in iron cuffs. We dare not 
speak the whole truth. If we did our paper would be sup- 



Chap. 31 Fx\cts and Falsehoods. 225 

pressed, our business ruined, our wives and children brought 
to want." 

Neither the despot Grant nor his sub-despots ever forgot the 
press. Every officer and private in that arm}^ of despotism kept 
a sharp eye on newspapers, and were quick to apply the muzzle 
if any paper dared make public their evil deeds. Despotism is a 
noxious plant, which hates the light and flourishes only in dark 
places. A few samples will show how despots muzzled the press 
in the South: On November 15, 1867, a file of soldiers entered 
the office of the Vicksburg Times, arrested the editor, dragged 
him to jail. McArdle's offense was having reported in the paper 
a despotic order made by General Ord, and comparing the situa- 
tion of the South with that of Poland. McArdle was tried by a 
military commission (always organized to convict) and condemn- 
ed. Being a man of talent he took an appeal, but all the influence 
of the military was against him. The case dragged on for years 
before a final decision, which I have failed to find. 

Early on the morning of August 8, 1867, a body of soldiers 
forced their way into the office of the Constitutional Eagle, pub- 
lished at Camden, Ark., seized, carried off and destroyed all the 
material of the office. Col. C. C. Gilbert, the small despot com- 
manding the Union soldiers at Camden, justified the acts of his 
men, saying to the editor : 

"An article in your paper unnecessarily exasperated my 
soldiers. The press may censure the servants of the people, 
but the military are not the servants of the people, but their 
masters. It is a great impertinence for a newspaper in this 
State to comment on the military under any circumstances." 
— The Democratic Speaker and Handbook. 
The comment which unnecessarily exasperated the soldiers 
was a statement that when drunk the soldiers were in the habit 
of indecently exposing their persons on the street when ladies 
were passing. The National Intelligencer of Washington City 
commented on the rule of the military satraps in the South, as 
follows : 

"Without any proof whatever four respectable citizens 
were arrested and confined in separate cells in Atlanta, denied 
all communication with friends, save under military surveil- 
lance, denied all opportunity to confer with legal counsel. 
Two white men in Fort Pulaski were confined in cells and de- 
nied all access to friends or legal counsel. These six men 
were brought out of their dungeons, hurried to trial for their 



226 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 31 

lives before a military commission, one of those institutions, 
Mr. Webster said, always organized to convict. The statement 
of facts is sufficiently horrible and damnable to every 
officer and agent concerned in it. But this is only a part of 
the infamous record. While these men are immured in dun- 
geons, cut off from all access to friends or counsel, their ene- 
mies, with artful and incessant malice, have been busy in pro- 
curing false testimony, and the uniform of the nation is de- 
graded by the military arrest of ignorant negroes, dragging 
them by force before a military board, and then by threats 
and curses, starvation and solitary confinement, endeavor to 
extort from them false testimony upon which the lives of 
innocent men may be taken away. The testimony we pub- 
lish to-day establishes these facts, and shows the charac- 
ter of the government under which the people of the South 
now live." — Democratic Handbook and Speaker, page 162. 

These military lords permitted the farce of elections, if car- 
ried on under military control. Armed battalions of negroes and 
Federal white men surrounded the voting places. In vain Demo- 
crats issued protests against these outrages. In the House of Con- 
gress Mr. Brooks, in behalf of the Democratic members, offered 
a powerful protest. 

"The military," said the protest, "have been used to de- 
stroy States. The General of the army (Grant), representing 
the sword, and only the sword (he represented a whiskey bot- 
tle also), has been exalted by acts of Congress above the 
constitutional Commander in Chief (the President) of the 
Army and Navy, in order to execute these military decrees 
and root out every vestige of constitutional law and liberty. 
To prolong and perpetuate this military rule in the North and 
West, as well as the South, this same General of the army 
(Grant) has been elected at the Chicago Convention to head 
the electoral votes for the Presidency in ten States of this 
Union, which are as much under his feet as Turkey is under 
the Sultan's, or Poland under the Czar of Russia." 

If the protests from Northern Democrats did not stem the 
tide of despotism, they at least showed that a spark of the old 
fire of liberty yet existed in this corrupted Union. At one stroke 
of the pen Sheridan, Grant's sub-despot, disfranchised thirty 
thousand white men in Louisiana. Grant was responsible for 
every criminal act done by the military. The New York Herald 
said of Grant's brutality in the South: 



Chap. 31 ' Facts and Falsehoods. 227 

"Every personal right of the citizen is invaded at once. 
Without any process of law whatever, a man is deprived 
of his liberty and thrust into a cell at the mere bidding of a 
political or military bully. The secrecy of the telegraph and 
post office is violated as no man would dare violate them in 
despotic France." 

At that time France was ruled by an Emperor. The South 
was ruled by the despotism of hate. No Christian Emperor, 
King or Kaiser was ever so cruel, so bitter, so vindictive as the 
hate despotism imposed by Grant upon the people of the South. 
By bogus elections carpetbaggers went to Congress. It seemed 
that the chief aim of these bogus Congressmen was to obtain ad- 
ditional power to rob, oppress and torment the people of the 
South. The excuse for seeking Congressional aid was the ready 
lie that the people of the South were on the eve of another re- 
bellion. On the 23d of July a bill to send more soldiers and mu- 
nitions of war to the Southern States was up for discussion. A 
man by the name of Stokes, who claimed to represent a Tennessee 
Congressional district, spoke as follows : 

"If you do not send us guns and powder and bayonets 
and cannon, and send 'em quick, Forrest and his rebel crew of 
Democrats will be down on us like — like a thousand devils! 
I want ten thousand stand of arms for my own district. Un- 
less you send on these arms all the truly loyal negroes will be 
overrun and the Republican party killed in Tennessee." 

Mr. Washburn, of Illinois, seemed to be very anxious to send 
guns and bayonets down to the loyal negroes and carpetbaggers, 
but he was afraid. 

"Sir," said Mr. Washburn, "sir, I believe that in most 
of the States not ten days after these arms are sent South to 
the loyal negroes they will be in the hands of the rebels." 

Congress saw the danger. Never before was any Congress in 
so painful a quandary. Anxious, yet afraid, to arm loyal negroes 
and carpetbaggers. A man named Dewees, claiming to represent 
the people of North Carolina (he might as well have claimed to 
represent the people in the moon or the farthest star), added to 
the distress and perplexity of Congress. 

"If you don't give us arms," cried Mr. Dewees, pale and 
anxious, "before six months the Ku-KIux-Klan. the Rebels 
and the Copperheads will be ruling the whole South." 

Ku-Klux, Rebels and Copperheads were a trinity of devils. 
Hades had no worse. Still, Congress was afraid to send to the 



228 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

lo3al negroes and carpetbaggers munitions of war, which seems a 
little strange to us of this generation, knowing, as all now know, 
that the Ku-Klux or Rebels in the South had no arms or muni- 
tions of war, while the lo3"al negroes and carpetbaggers were 
well armed. A Democrat named Woodward ventured to ask if 
the reconstruction government in the South could be maintained 
in no other way than by the bayonet. This question aroused Mr. 
Dewees' indignation. 

"No!" he roared. "We can only sustain our Govern- 
ment by arms ! Arms we must have, or Ku-Klux, Rebels 
and Copperheads will wnpe us out and rule the South." 

At this one or two Copperheads (Northern Democrats) were 
imprudent enough to laugh, which had the effect of stirring Mr. 
Dewees up to the very highest flight of oratory. Mr. Dewees was 
short, thick set, and very ruddy, so to speak ; every pore of his 
body broke out into a glow and gush and roar of eloquence, and 
the whole House on both sides became convulsed with laughter. 
"Come on!" shouted the man claiming to represent 
North Carolina; "I say, come on when you feel disposed! 
Stretch out your traitorous hands to touch again one fold of 
the old flag, and representatives of four million of men with 
black skins, but loyal hearts, will dasli themselves a bulwark 
between you and the loyal governments in the South, and 
you will only live in sad memories of bad events. Come on ! 
Come on!" 

No one seemed disposed to comt on, though entreated so 
fervently. Never before was Congress in such a higgledy-pig- 
gledy state of mind. If they sent arms to negroes and carpetbag- 
gers the rebels would get every gun witliin ten days. Mr. Wash- 
burn said so. If they didn't send arms the rebels would get every 
negro and carpetbagger in ten days. Mr. Dewees said so. 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

Hate. 
"Forgiveness to the injured does belong; 
But they ne'er pardon, zvho have done the zvrong." 

On reading over the preceding pages of this work, I find the 
word hate often recurs. In the absence of evidence the men of 
this generation will not be able to form any adequate conception of 
the vast volume of virulence which, like an empoisoned stream 
bubbling up from hell itself, continually flowed downward on the 
people of the South. This stream was started in 1796, and con- 



Chap. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. 229 

tinued until, swollen to enormous proportions, it culminated in a 
deluge of blood in 1861-1865. For four cruel years that deluge 
spread itself over the States of the South, and at the end of four 
years the men of the South laid down their arms and peace was 
declared, but there was no peace. In 1898 the Republican party 
inaugurated war on Spain to rescue Cuba from Spanish oppres- 
sion. As soon as this purpose was accomplished the victorious 
Republican party made haste to resume friendly relations with 
Spain, and when Spanish army officers visited this country they 
were courteously treated, not one unkind word spoken or written 
of them or of their country. How differently did the conquering 
Republicans treat the conquered people of the South after peace 
was declared between the two sections! If anything. Republican 
hate became more intense. The whole reconstruction period 
was a deadly war on Southern people, and the more base and cow- 
ardly because waged on unarmed men and women. The Republi- 
can party declared it waged the war of the 60s to restore the 
Union. The Union was restored precisely to suit their ideas. 
Every negro in the land was freed. Why, then, was not the Re- 
publican part}^ satisfied with its success, as it was satisfied with 
its success in 1898? The answer is plain. Because the war of 
the 6o's was not fought to restore the Union or to free negroes ; 
these were the pretexts, not the true purpose, of that war. Re- 
publicans hated the Union, and had Httle love for any enslaved 
people. Republicans waged that war of the 60s to down, crush, 
kill the Democratic party. When the South surrendered and peace 
was proclaimed. Northern Democracy took courage, lifted up its 
head, fronted and faced its old enemy and prepared itself to re- 
sist any further torture and persecutions of Southern Democ- 
racy. All the old fear of Democracy awakened in Republican 
hearts, hence its increased intensity of hate. The people of the 
^outh were talked of as though they were wild beasts, which it 
were virtue to exterminate from the face of the earth. This 
feeling suffered no abatement until after Garfield's death. Dur- 
ing Garfield's campaign Republican hate amoimted to insanity. 

The Cincinnati Enquirer, January 15, 1881, said: 

"Republican hate has blasted the fair heritage of our 
fathers'." 

It certainly had blasted that heritage, and for a time seemed 
to have killed liberty itself. Two years before Daniel Webster's 
death, he foresaw and predicted the evil deeds th-'.t party would 
commit should it ever ascend to power. 



230 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

"If these fanatics," said Webster, "ever get the power in 
their own hands they will override the Constitution, set 
the Supreme Court at defiance, change and make laws to suit 
themselves, lay violent hands on them who differ in opinion 
or who dare to question their fidelity, and finally deluge the 
country with blood." 

Every word of this prediction came to pass. The Constitu- 
tion ivas overridden. The Supreme Court zuas set at defiance. 
A'iolent hands were laid on those who differed in opinion. The 
country zcas deluged in blood. 

Samples of Republican Hate. 

In 1859, at a meeting in Natick, Massachusetts, Senator Wil- 
son, of Massachusetts, offered the following : 

"Resolved, That it is the right and duty of Northern men 
to incite and aid negroes in the South to rise in insurrection." 

Seward said: 

"I would like to see the negroes of the South rise in 
blackest insurrection." 

In 1859 the New York Herald said : 

"Not only the Republican clergy encourage the insurrec- 
tion of negroes in the South to bring on a civil war,* but the 
gentler sex also." 

Hate like this came well from the descendants of men on 
whose souls rested and still rests the horrors of the "Middle Pass- 
age." 

In a speech delivered by Mr. Joshua R. Giddings, in Kansas, 
he said : 

"I look for the day when I shall see a negro insurrec- 
tion in the South, when the negroes will be supplied with Brit- 
ish bayonets and commanded by British officers, and shall 
wage a war of extermination against the whites, when every 
white man shall see his dwelling in flames and his hearth 
polluted ; and though I may not mock at their calamity, yet I 
shall hail it as the dawn of the millennium.." 

— Carpenter's Logic of History. 

It was the hope of witnessing horrors such as Giddings 
wished to see that made Seward, Medill, Chandler and others, 
so eager to inaugurate war on the South. Republicans confidently 
believed that at the first tap of the drum the negroes would rise 



Chap. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. 231 

in "blackest insurrection" and set to work killing white women 
and children. The amiable conduct of the negroes, their docile 
obedience to the white women of the South while husbands, 
brothers and fathers were at the front battling for freedom, was 
a sore disappointment to hating hearts. During that trying time 
not a white woman on the great plantations was afraid of ne- 
groes ; not a white woman was outraged or afraid of outrage. The 
mistress of the "gret-us," as the negroes called the great house, 
or the family mansion, never locked their doors at night. The 
negroes on the place were their protectors, not their enemies. 
Rapes of young matrons and maidens and little girl children were 
not known in the South until after the savage but slumbering 
instincts of negro nature had been awakened by instructions of 
and companionship with those who hated the Southern people so 
insanely. During Buchanan's administration the Rev. Wm. Du- 
vall, unable to attend in person and address a convention of Re- 
publicans, sent a letter to be read to the convention. A short ex- 
tract will show the spirit of the writer and of the convention to 
which he wrote : 

"Long before this," wrote the Rev. Duvall, "an army of 
20,000 men should have expelled from Washington City the 
Goths and Vandals of this administration (President Buchan- 
an and his Cabinet). The people of the North are ready to 
do this work — only let the capitalists of the North furnish the 
money — and the men are ready to fight this propagandizing 
government. I sincerely hope that a civil war may soon 
burst upon this country. I want to see it. My most fervent 
prayer is that England, France and Spain may speedilv take 
this accursed nation into their special consideration and when 
the time arrives, for the streets and cities of this land to run 
with blood to the horses' bridles. If this writer be living there 
will be one heart to rejoice." 

— See Carpenter's Logic of History. 
The Rev. Charles E. Hodges wrote a little work widely cir- 
culated. The following extract will show its spirit: 

"He is not a traitor to his country, but a true patriot, as 
well as a Christian, who labors for the dissolution of the 
Union. We do not expect to dissolve the Union alone ; we 
simply ask co-operation, and for this appeal to the people. 
This is not the time to lay out the plan of a campaign, to open 
trenches, dispose of forces and besiege the citadel. The thing 
to be now done is to urge upon every man this question : Are 
you ready?" 



232 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

James Watson Webb said in a speech : 

"If we fail at the ballot we will drive back the South with 
fire and sword — so help me God!" 

At a public meeting held in Buffalo, New York, some years 
before the' South seceded. Governor Reeder, of Kansas, spoke 
as follows: 

"When I am on the trail of the enemy against whom I 
have a deadly hate, I will follow him with cat-like tread ; I 
will not strike until I can strike him dead. I do not wish to 
give the South notice of our intentions. When the time 
comes to strike I want the South to have the first notice of 
the blow in the blow itself." 

Hate blinded this man Reeder and his hearers to the base- 
ness involved in the declaration that he would steal upon the ob- 
ject of his hate as the tiger steals upon his prey, and strike as ti- 
gers and assassins strike — in the dark and without warning. 

Before tlie first blow of war was struck the Chicago 
Tribune jauntily said»to the Eastern States: 

"Get out of the way; we of Illinois can fight this battle. 
In three months Illinois can whip the South." 

Before a battle was fought the New York Tribune, which 
time and again had declared the South's right to secede, right to 
independence, said: 

"The hanging of traitors is sure to begin before the 
month is over. The nations of Europe may rest assured 
that JefT Davis will be swinging from the battlements of 
Washington at least by the Fourth of July. We spit upon 
a later and longer deferred justice." 
The New York Times said: 
"Let us make quick work. The rebellion is an unborn 
tadpole. A strong pull will do our work effectively in thirty 
days." 

The Philadelphia Press said : 

"No man of sense can for a moment doubt that the war 
will end in a month. The rebels, a mere band of ragamuffins, 
will fly on our approach like chaff before the wind. The 
Northern people are simply invincible." 

Seward said : 

"It is erroneous to suppose any war exists in the United 
States. There is only an ephemeral insurrection." 



CiTAP. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. 233 

The battle of Bull Run was fought July 21, 1861. Prominent 
Republicans, having no doubt of victory, boastingly invited friends. 
Senators, Congressmen, their wives and daughters to go out and 
"see the rebels run." "This," they gleefully said, "will be your 
only chance to see anything like a battle." Accordingly, long 
strings of carriages filled with fine ladies escorted by gentlemen on 
horseback, drove out of Washington City that 2Tst day of July, 
1 861, followed by express wagons loaded with eatables for lunch- 
eon, baskets of champagne, bottles of brandy, beer, etc. They 
prepared for a pleasant picnic, but their return was not quite so 
joyous. However, there were some loaded wagons that went 
from Washington that morning which never returned. They were 
captured by Confederates, driven southward, and their contents 
divided among the women of Virginia as mementoes showing the 
spirit of Republicans at that time. Some of these mementoes 
which escaped the pillaging and burning by the Union armies 
now hang in Southern halls for Southern children to wonder at — 
iron shackles and iron balls for rebel feet, and ropes and hand- 
cuflfs for rebel hands. Republicans confidently expected to see 
long strings of Southern soldliers driven into Washington, pain- 
fully dragging iron balls on their fettered feet, handcuffs on their 
hands. Republicans often declared that the negro "would be de- 
lighted to get a chance to cut tlieir masters' throats." They con- 
fidently expected negroes to rise in "blackest insurrection" and 
help them burn houses and barns and kill Southern whites. When 
B. F. Butler, surnamed the Beast, was commander of New Or- 
leans, he was anxious to see negroes rise and kill white women 
and children in La Fourche Parish, in which were only a few old 
white men and many thousand blacks. Butler unfolded these views 
to General Weitzel, who commanded that parish, and that officer 
refused to engage in the work. 

"The idea," wrote Weitzel to Butler, "of a negro insur- 
rection is heartrending. I will resign my command- rather 
than induce negroes to outrage and murder the helpless 
whites." 

In 1863 Morrow B. Lowry, Republican Senator in Penn- 
sylvania, in a public speech stated that he had declared that if 
any negro would bring him his "Rebel" master's head he would 
give him one hundred and sixty acres of his master's plantation. 
Not a "Rebel" head did any negro take to Mr. Lowry. Russell, 
correspondent of the London Times, was in Washington when the 
battle of Bull Run was fought. On page 176 of his diary Rus- 
sell says: 



234 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

"The first Confederate soldiers captured were taken to 
the station and mobbed in the streets. Men dressed as Union 
soldiers hurled every kind of missile they could lay their 
hands on at the prisoners, pelting them with mud and filthy 
words. It was with difficulty the guard could save tlie 
prisoners from being killed." 

The unfortunate Confederate soldiers shut up in Northern 
prisons describe the various cruelties, the tortures perpetrated on 
helpless Southern soldiers. Many were killed wantonly by bru- 
tal negro guards, who were rewarded, never punished, for such 
deeds. Many died of starvation and cold. To cover up their own 
cruelty, Republicans were eternally accusing the South of cruelty. 

On page 163 of Russell's diary he says: 

"The stories which have been so sedulously spread of 
the barbarity and cruelty of the Confederates to all the 
wounded Union men ought to be set at rest by the printed 
statement of the eleven Union surgeons, just released, who 
have come back from Richmond, where they were sent after 
their capture on the field of Bull Run, with the most distinct 
testimony that the Confederates treated their prisoners with 
humanity. Who are the miscreants who try to make the 
evil feeling, quite strong enough as it is, perfectly fiendish by 
asserting that the rebels burned the wounded in hospitals 
and bayoneted them as they lay helpless on the battlefield ?" 

Who were they? Russell did not know that lies of this nat- 
ure were only part of the gospel of hate so long preached by the 
Republican party and its progenitors, the Federalists of New 
England. Never for a moment did those lies cease to be told. 
The testimony of the eleven surgeons was blown away on the 
wind and the lies went on. Lies of this sort were credited by the 
prison guards, hence their cruel treatment of Southern soldiers. 

On page 152 Russell says of Republican lies told in Wash- 
ington : 

"Such capacity for enormous lying, both in creation and 
absorption, the world never before witnessed." 

Even at the early stage of the war Seward, the vindictive, 
gloated over the prospect of. the South 's sufferings. In the Union 
army were large numbers of the lowest class of men from 
European kingdoms. Of these Seward said to Russell : 

"Thousands of half savage Germans come over, enlist in 



Chap. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. 235 

our army and plunder and destroy as if they were living in 
the days of Agricola." 

— Russell's Diary, page 211. 

Well informed Englishmen well knew how savage was the 
hate Republicans felt toward the South. The London Telegraph 
tersely put it thus : 

"The North simply demands blood, blood, blood. Do- 
minion, spoliation, confiscation." 

At a Republican meeting in Cadiz, Wisconsin, March 26, 
1863, the following was unanimously passed: 

"Resolved, That we hail any policy of our Government 
toward the South, be it annihilation, extermination, starva- 
tion or damnation." 

What virulence of hate lies in these words ! 
Cassius Clay said in a public speech : 

"I find fault with Lincoln, not because he suspended the 
habeas corpus, but instead of doing it by a dash of the pen, 
he did not do it by 'ropes around the necks of the rebels.' " 

"We'll hang 'em yet!" cried out a voice from the crowd. 
"Yes," rejoined Clay, "the hanging of such men as Seymour 
and Wood will be true philanthropy." 

Seymour was the Democratic Governor of New York. Wood 
was a distinguished Democrat of New York. All through the 
history of the Republican party may be seen evidence that the 
basic foundation of Republican animosity toward the South was 
hatred of Democracy and Democrats. McCIellan was only a 
half-hearted Democrat, but Republican hatred of McCIellan was 
intense. Witness this from the Chicago Tribune: 

"Give us rebel victories, let our armies be defeated ; 
let Maryland be conquered, Washington captured, the Presi- 
dent exiled, our Government destroyed. Give us these and 
any other calamity that can result from war and ruin sooner 
than a victory with McCIellan as General." 

— Carpenter's Logic of History. 

Wendell Phillips, who, before blood began to flow, eloquently 
declared that the South was in the right, that Lincoln had no 
right to send armed men to coerce her, after battles begun seemed 
to become drunk on the fimies of blood and mad for more than 
battlefields afiforded. In a speech delivered in Beecher's church, 



236 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

to a large and presumably a Christian congregation, Phillips made 
the following remarkable declaration : 

"I do not believe in battles ending this war. You may 
plant a fort in every district of the South, you may take pos- 
session of her capitals and hold them with your armies, but 
}Ou have not begun to subdue her people. I know it seems 
something like absolute barbarian conquest, I allow it, but 
/ do not believe there will he any peace until 347,000 men of 
the South are either hanged or exiled." (Cheers). 

Why the precise number, 347,000, does not appear. If the 
hanging at one fell swoop of 347,000 men and women seemed to 
Phillips something like barbarian conquest, it would be interesting 
to know what would have appeared truly barbarian. History re- 
cords some crimes of such stupendous magnitude, even to this day 
men shudder at their mention. 

In the Thirteenth Century, within two hours, while Sicilian 
pi rests were chanting vesper songs in Christian churches, 8,000 
men were slaughtered. In the Eighth Century Charlemagne 
hanged 4,000 men in one batch. In the Sixteenth Century, on 
St. Bartholomew's Day, if we take the lowest estimate, 30,000, if 
we take the higlicst, 70,000, innocent men and women were butch- 
ered as fast as human hands could do the work. In France, 
during the revolution, one fine September day, 1,000 
men were put to death. During the Reign of Terror, 
some estimate 2,000, others 4,000, human heads were 
chopped off by the guillotine ; but these 4,000 were killed day by 
day. Was Mr. Phillips and his party ambitious to overtop all of 
these stupendous crimes and win for himself and his party the 
highest record in the calendar of crime? Marat was the monster 
of the Reign of Terror. Becoming impatient at the killing dail^' 
done by the guillotine, Marat demanded it be given at one batch 
an extra 250,000 heads. Was it Mr. Phillips' ambition to reach a 
higher pinnacle of infamy than Marat liad attained? Is it indeed 
true that the heart in a human breast sometimes ceases to be hu- 
man, and a wolf's ramps in its place? 

While the war was fiercely raging a meeting was called in 
New York City for the relief of the sick and wounded Union sol- 
diers. Parson Browmlow made a speech which elicited from the 
Republicans frequent and loud applause. The following extract 
will show the spirit of hate that ruled the hour : 

"If I had the power," said Brownlow, "I would arm and 
uniform in the Federal habiliments every w^olf and panther 



Chap. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. 237 

and catamount and tiger and bear in the mountains of Amer- 
ica ; every crocodile in the swamps cf Florida and South Car- 
olina ; every negro in the Southern Confederacy, and every 
devil in hell, and turn them on the rebels in the South, if it 
exterminated every rebel from the face of God's green earth 
— every man^ woman and child south of Mason and Dixon's 
line. I would like to see Richmond and Charleston captured 
by negro troops commanded by Butler, the beast. We will 
crowd the rebels into the Gulf of Mexico, and drown the 
entire race, as the devil did the hogs in the Sea of Galilee." 
{Long and loud applause.) 

After this fine burst of ferocity Lincoln, Seward and Stanton 
thought it would be a good thing to have Parson Brownlow Gov- 
ernor of Tennessee, from which vantage ground he could harass 
and torture the white people of that State at his leisure. By Fed- 
eral aid the negroes and carpetbaggers in Tennessee put Brown- 
low in the Governor's office, which he abused by cruelties, rascali- 
ties and oppressions of every sort. English writers make fre- 
quent mention of the bitter hate Republicans felt toward the con- 
quered South. From an English work, published in 1891, called 
"Black America," I take the following: 

"In spite of the fact that all resistance to Federal author- 
ity had ceased, and that according to Mr. Justice Nelson of 
the Supreme Court, the States in which the civil government 
had been restored under the pacific Presidential plan w'ere 
entitled to all the rights of States in the Union, in spite of 
tliese facts Congress solemnly decided that the war was not 
over, and in March, 1867, Congress passed the reconstruc- 
tion act, over President Johnson's veto. These acts annulled 
the States' government, then in peaceful operation, divided 
the States into military districts, -and placed them under mar- 
tial law ; enfranchised the negroes, disfranchised all white 
men, whether pardoned or not, who had participated in the 
war against the Union, if they had previously held any execu- 
tive, legislative or judicial office under the State or Federal 
Government." 

So bitter, blinding venomous was Republican hate, high men 
in that party openly and gleefully exulted in the cruelty of the 
so-called reconstruction acts. Garfield was one of this sort. 

'This bill," said Garfield joyfully, "first sets out by lay- 
ing its hand on the rebel States' governments, and taking the 
very breath of life out of them. In the next place it puts a 



238 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

bayonet at the breast of every rebel in the South. In the next 
it leaves in the hands of Congress utter and absolute power 
over the people of the South." 

Percy Gregg, the English historian, in his history of the 
United States, says: 

"The reconstruction policy was at once dishonest and 
vindictive. The Congressional majority (Republican) were 
animated not merely by selfish designs, but by rabid hatred 
of the South's people which had fought so gallantly for what 
the best jurists of America believed to be their moral and 
constitutional right." 

For what the foremost men in the Republican party had de- 
clared their right. Another English writer of great eminence, An- 
thony Trollope, was in this country during the reconstruction 
period, and wrote of it thus : 

"1 hold that tyranny never went beyond this. Never 
has there been a more terrible condition imposed upon a fall- 
en people. For an Italian to feel an Austrian over him, for 
a Pole to feel a Russian over him, has been bad indeed, but 
it has been left for the political animosity of the Republicans 
of the North — men who themselves reject all contact with the* 
negro — to subject the Southern people to dominance from the 
African who yesterday was their slave. The dungeon chains 
were knocked off the captive in order that he may be har- 
nessed as a beast of burden to the captive's chariot." 

We will give another passage from Gregg, the English histo- 
rian: 

"The devastation of the Pallatine hardly exceeded the 
desolation and misery wrought by the Republican invasion and 
conquest of the South. No conquered nation of modern days, 
not Poland under the heel of Nicholas, not Spain or Russia . 
under that of Napoleon, suffered from such individual and 
collective ruin, or saw before them so frightful a prospect as 
the States dragged by force, in April, 1865, under the 'best 
government in the world.' " (Page 375, Gregg's History of 
United States.) 

When the bill to confiscate land in the South was before Con- 
gress, the English language seemed to be inadequate to convey the 
insane hate of the Republican party toward the people of the 
South. A short extract from Thaddeus Stevens' speech will show 
something of the spirit of that time: 



Chap. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. 239 

"Why," cried Stevens, his face Hvid, his Hps flecked with 
foam, "why all the carnage and devastation we have had? 
It was that treason might be put down and traitors punished. 
I say, the traitor has ceased to be a citizen ; he has become a 
public enemy. The South's land must be seized and divided 
and conveyed to loyal men, black or white. This confiscation 
bill can be condemned only by the criminals and their friends, 
and by that unmanly kind of men whose mental and moral 
vigor has melted into a fluent weakness, which they mistake 
for mercy, and by those religionists who mistake meanness 
for Christianity." 

Conventions were called in different States to arouse the peo- 
ple to the fury of another war on the crushed, conquered, dis- 
armed South. A convention was held in Philadelphia in 1866, the 
purpose of which seemed to stir up hate toward President John- 
son, and to fire the old soldiers with a desire to march down on 
the South and "finish the war." General B. F. Butler was a big 
man in that convention, and made venomous speeches. With one 
blood-streaked eye turned Southward toward the land he hated, 
and the other downward toward the hot home bad souls are doom- 
ed to dwell in, Butler shouted out : 

"By their rebellion the men of the South forfeited their 
property, their liberty, their lives, every right they possessed. 
Unfortunately they were not hanged, but we will march on 
them once more, and woe to him who opposes us ! I say," 
Butler shouted, his terrifying eyes still turned in different 
directions, "I say, keep the men of the South out of the Union 
until the heavens melt ! And if that should not come to pass 
in our day, we will swear our sons to keep them out." (Long 
and loud applause). 

Zack Chandler made a fierce attack on President Johnson, 
whom leading Republicans had come fiercely to hate, because 
Johnson's policy toward the South was less cruel than theirs : 
"Who is Andy Johnson?" wrathfully demanded Chand- 
ler. "What is Andy Johnson's policy ? Andy Johnson has no ' 
more right to a policy than my horse has. If Johnson does 
not stop about now he will learn that treason is a crime, and 
that it shall be punished." 

Brownlow was a very big man at that convention. Brown- 
fow, like Johnson, had fled from the South and entered the camp 
of her foes. Lincoln had disliked Johnson, but had held Brown- 
low in much favor. Before going to the Philadelphia convention 



240 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

Brownlow made a speech to the carpetbaggers and negroes of 
Nashville, Tenn. The following extract will show its spirit: 

"I am one of those," said Brownlow, "who believe the 
war has ended too soon. We have whipped the rebels, but 
not enough. The loyal masses constitute an overwhelming 
majority of the people of this country, and they intend to 
march again on the South, and intend this second war shall 
be no child's play. The second army of invasion will, as 
they ought to, make the entire South as God found the earth, 
without form and void. They will not, and ought not to, 
leave one rebel fence-rail, outhouse, one dwelling, in the 
eleven seceded States. As for the Rebel population,, let them 
be exterminated. When the second war is wound up, which 
should be done with swift destruction, let the land be sur- 
veyed and sold out to pay expenses." 

This speech so highly pleased Republicans that the Philadel-, 
phia convention gave Brownlow a boisterous welcome. The fol- 
lowing extract is from BrownloAv's address to the convention : 

"I mean to have something to say about the division of 
your forces the next time you march on the South. I would 
divide your army into three grand divisions. Let the first be 
armed and equipped as the law requires, with small arms and 
artillery. Let them be the largest division, and do the killing. 
Let the second division be armed with pine torches and spirits 
of turpentine, and let them do the burning ! Let the third and 
last division be armed with surveyors' compasses and chains, 
that will survey the land and settle it with loyal people." 

Brownlow's speech so much pleased Republicans they invited 
him to go about repeating his speech to stir up the old soldiers to 
the fury of a second war on the South. Governor Yates of Illinois 
was at that convention, also eager for a second war on the South. 
In his speech Yates said : 

"Illinois raised 250,000 troops to fight the South, and 
now we are ready to raise 500,000 more to finish the good 
work." 

In another speech Brownlow exhorted the soldiers to march 
down on the South, to "burn and kill ! burn and kill !" until the 
whole rebel race was exterminated. These sentiments were 
praised as "truly loyal." These two words, "truly loyal," were 
so prostituted by Republicans during the war, and for years after, 
not for a thousand years will they regain their purity of meaning. 



Chap. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. 241 

Not a man of the Republican party, not a paper condemned (so 
far as I can discover) these rabid utterances. On the contrary, 
the more rabid and maHgnant a man was, the higher he rose in 
Republican favor. Richard Busted, a carpetbagger from New 
York, who was playing the part of Judge in Alabama "Territory," 
in a speech made in New York Cit}'', spoke as follows : 

"I would keep the rebels out in the cold till their teeth 
chattered to the music of the Union. (Applause). Keep them 
out in the cold till they learn that treason is the greatest crim6 
of the century ! I would keep them there till the last trumpet 
soimded ! I say, better a boundless waste of territory, filled 
with owls and bats, than that the Southern States should be 
occupied with such men ! (Cheers). I tell you, although there 
may be forgiveness before God for the crime of the South, 
there can be no forgiveness before men." {Long applause). 

The carpetbagger, Hamilton, who was playing the part of 
despot-governor over Texas, was eager to have another army 
sent down on the devastated South. In his speech at the Phila- 
delphia convention, the carpetbagger, Hamilton, said : 

"Prepare your hearts, and your guns, and your swords, 
for another conflict. It is bound to come. Get yourselves 
ready." "We are ready," shouted back a blood-thirsty Re- 
publican. "We are ready ! We'll march down and finish the 
Rebs !" 

About the same time a convention was held in Syracuse, New 
York, in which a second war on the South was urged. Lyman 
Tremaine was president. In his address Mr. Tremaine said of 
that second war : 

"At the very first tap of the drum an army of veteran 
troops capable of overwhelming all opposition will come to 
the rescue." 

Rescue of what? Of whom? Who, what was in danger? 
Were these men absolutely insane with hate ? Was it ]:^ossible 
they still apprehended danger from the disarmed South? They 
well knew if they sent another army on the South it would 
not be against armed men; they knew, as Brownlow had declared, 
all their army would have to do would be to "kill and burn ! kill 
and burn!" to the dreadful end. 

"Traitors," continued President Tremaine, "must be 
punished. Our soldiers will proceed to ])imish them. This 
time it will be effectually done by our soldiers without the in- 



242 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

tervention of President Johnston, or Congress, judge or 
jury." 

Yet this man Tremaine had once possessed a fair share of 
reason and some sense of justice. In the early days of the war, 
while speaking of the Southern people's resistance to the armed 
invasion of their country, Tremaine said to his audience: 

"But, gentlemen, while Ido not justif}' secession in the 
abstract, we must not forget that the South has had the most 
terrible provocation to which civilized men have ever been 
subjected. When they found the Government turned into an 
engine of war and oppression— make the case your own, and 
then make proper allowance for our Southern friends — I ask 
whether they are doing very differently from what human 
nature would do under such circumstances?" 

It seemed as if Republicans lay awake at night devising new 
ways of manifesting hate toward the people of the South. On 
May 25, 1866, a man by the name of Bond, in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, gave notice as follows : 

"I will introduce a bill to adopt the gray uniform of the 
so-called Confederate States to be the uniform of the convicts 
in the State penitentiaries, and that the prisoner convicted of 
manslaughter be entitled to wear the ensign of rank of a 
Colonel, and so on down to the lowest grade in crime." 

In the summer of 1863 the Washington Chronicle reported a 
speech made by Jim Lane, Republican Senator from Kansas, in 
Washington City: 

"I would like," said Senator Lane, " to live long enough 
to see every white man in South Carolina in hell, and the 
negroes inheriting their territory. (Loud applause.) It would 
not any day wound my feelings to find the dead bodies of 
every rebel sympathizer pierced with bullet holes, in every 
street and alley in Washington City. (Applause.) Yes; T 
woul,d regret the waste of powder and lead. I would rather 
have these Copperheads hung and the ropes saved for future 
use. (Loud applause.) I would like to see them dangle until 
their stinking bodies would rot and fall to the ground piece by 
piece." (Applause and laughter.) 

Nothing done by the Republicans after the war ended mani- 
fested more malignant hatred than the way they treated and lied 
on the President of the Southern Confederacy. This western 
continent has produced no man of whom it has more reason to be 



Chap. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. 243 

proud than Jefferson Davis. Brave, gentle, kindly, a true Chris- 
tian in every walk of life, a patriot of the truest type, an ardent 
lover of the liberty which inspired the men of '76, Davis should 
be held up before the youth of America as deserving esteem, 
reverence, emulation. When the war ended the Republicans se- 
lected Mr. Davis as the chief object on which to pour foul streams 
of hate. The English language was ransacked in search of vile 
epithets to throw upon him ; human ingenuity was taxed to invent 
base falsehoods to defame him. The murder of Mr. Lincoln was 
seized as a pretext to charge him with the crime of assassination. 
Without the faintest shadow of evidence Republicans made haste 
to proclaim to the world that in their bureau of military justice 
they had proof that Mr. Davis was guilty of the assassination of 
Lincoln. $100,000 were offered for his arrest. When arrested 
he was cast into prison and treated as a felon. Every species of 
indignity and insult was heaped upon him. Though old, feeble, 
sick, and strictly guarded, brutal men were ordered to enter his 
cell, throw him down and weld iron chains and balls on his ankles, 
ordered by the present Lieutenant-General Nelson A Allies. In 
vain Mr. Davis requested to be taken into open court and tried on 
the charges made. They dared not try him in any court. They 
knew they had no particle of evidence on which to convict him. 
Were he tried for Lincoln's murder, they would be proved guilty 
of lying, not Mr. Davis of murder. Were he tried for treason, 
not Mr. Davis, but the whole Republican party, would be proved 
guilty of treason — treason to the Constitution — treason to the 
principles of 'yG. Not daring to try Mr. Davis, too venomously 
cruel to restore him to freedom, they kept him in prison two years 
and every day of those two years, and almost every day after- 
ward for more, than a dozen years, Republicans continued to pour 
out on Mr. Davis' name streams of sulphuric hate. 

When Republicans proclaimed that Mr. Davis and other dis- 
tinguished men of the South had assassmated Lincoln, there was 
not a human on earth outside of the hate-crazed Republican party 
who believed that charge. Earl Russell, from the floor of Parlia- 
ment, voiced the sentiment of all England when he said : 

"It is not possible that men who have borne themselves 
so nobly in their struggle for independence could be guilty of 
assassination." 

To this Harper's Weekly replied with the hate-born lie : 
"If it seems too incredible to be true that the rebel lead- 
ers were guilty of Lincoln's assassination, it must be remem- 



244 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

bered that Lincoln's murder is no more atrocious than many 
crimes of which Davis is notoriously guilty." 

From the floor of Congress Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, March 
19, 1867, poured out Republican hate in this fashion: 

"While I would not be bloody-minded, yet if I had my 
way I would long ago have organized a military tribunal 
under military power, and I would have put Jefferson Davis 
and all the members of his Cabinet on trial for the murders at 
Andersonville and Salisbury, for the shooting down of our 
prisoners of war in cold blood — this man who has murdered 
a thousand men, robbed a thousand widows and orphans, and 
burned down a thousand houses." 

In Harper's Weekly of June, 1865, in this little burst of hate: 
"The murder of President Lincoln furnished the final 
proof of the ghastly spirit of the rebellion. Davis inspired 
the murder of Lincoln." 

If the murder of Mr. Lincoln furnished the proof of any one 
thing, it is proof of the truth of Christ's saying: 

"They that take the sword shall perish by the sword." 
Boutwell of Massachusetts introduced a resolution into Con- 
gress as follows: 

"Be it resolved, That Jefferson Davis shall be held and 
tried on the charge of killing prisoners and murdering Abra- 
ham Lincoln." 

John Forney, Clerk of the Senate, in the Washington Chron- 
icle, said: 

"The judiciary has ample evidence of Davis' guilt of 
Lincoln's murder, and of the murder of our soldiers in his 
prisons." 

Not one particle of such evidence was in existence. In Har- 
per's Weekly of June 17, 1865, we find this hate-born lie: 

"Davis is as guilty of Lincoln's murder as Booth. Da- 
vis was conspicuous for every extreme of ferocity, inhuman- 
ity and malignity. He was responsible for untold and unim- 
aginable cruelties practiced on loyal citizens in the South." 
Mr. Davis was conspicuous for Christian mercy and gentle- 
ness of character, as well as for wide culture. He was morally 
and physically one of the bravest men this country has produced. 
In Harper's Weekly of June 10, we find this : 

"In its last struggle the South's expiring force was con- 
centrated into one crime (the murder of Lincoln) so black the 
shuddering world everywhere recognizes the devilish spirit 
of rebellion." 



Chap. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. 245 

The shuddering world today will recognize in Harper's rav- 
ing the insanity of hate. The history of man's struggle for free- 
dom shows that rebellions have won for mankind all the freedom 
they possess. Did ever any ruler on earth, of his own will, loosen 
his grip on the liberties of those he ruled? Every inch of liberty 
the English-speaking people now have was gained by rebellions. 
The colonies of '76 won freedom by rebellion. Rebellion means 
resistance to lawful rule. George III. was the lawful King of the 
Colonies. At no period in the existence of this Union has one 
State or group of States held lawful rule over any other State or 
group of States. The most stupendous falsehood ever told on 
this continent is the falsehood that the Southern people rebelled. 
There can be no rebellion except against lawful rulers. The Re- 
publican party of the 6o's was guilty of the monstrous crime of 
usurping the power to rule the Southern States. Not only did 
Republicans pour out the virulence of hate on the South's men, 
her women came in for a share, and a large share they received. 
A few specimens will show the women of this generation how 
their mothers were hated in the past. 

Harper's Weekly, October 12th, 1861, has this: 

"The ladies of the South ought to be sent to the alms- 
houses and made to nurse pauper babies, and put to wash 
tubs under Irish Biddies." 

In the year 1865, June 4th, Harper had this little nugget of 
pure hate: 

"The women of the South are lovely and accomplished 
to look at, but their bold barbarity has de-humanized them ; 
they are like the smooth-skinned wives and daughters of the 
ogres in fairy tales — hyenas and wolves in woman's shape." 

The lies of hate are not all dead yet ; as late as June, 1894, a 
little paper called the Picket Guard, run in the interest of the 
Grand Army of the Republic of St. Louis, published the follow- 
ing wanton falsehood on the women of the South : 

"The mothers of the South," said the Picket Guard, 
"systematically taught their children to be cruel. During the 
war it was the custom of Southern ladies, accompanied by 
their little boys and girls, to walk through the prison hospi- 
tals and tear bandages from the wounds of the Union prison- 
ers, to exult in the pain they witnessed." 

Not a paper in St. Louis denounced this hate-born lie. On 
the contrary, a Republican daily paper, the Star, of that city. 



246 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

reproduced the lie in its columns, as a warning" to the Society 
of the Daughters of the Confederacy to keep silent on the war of 
the 6o's. 

On June 8th, 1866, Mr. Shellabarger of Ohio, from the floor 
of Congress, poured out a stream of hate-born lies, of which the 
following is a sample: 

"They (the people of the South) framed iniquity and 
universal murder into law — their pirates burned your com- 
merce on every sea (the South had no pirates). They plan- 
ned one universal bonfire of the North. They murdered by 
systems of starvation and exposure 60,000 of your sons in 
their prisons." 

Of the maHgnant as well as foolish lies in this extract, it 
is only necessary to notice the biggest of them all, the assertion 
that the South murdered 60,000 Union soldiers in her prisons. 
Secretary of War Stanton left on record the number of men on 
both sides who were made prisoners during the war, and the 
number who died in prison. 

In Northern prisons were Southern soldiers. . . .220,000 

Of those died in Northern prisons 26,000 

In the South's prisons wffe Union soldiers. .. .270,000 
Of those who died in Southern prisons 23,576 

These figures show that Mr. Shellabarger's figures exceed 
Stanton's by 36,424. If only 23,576 Union soldiers died in the 
South's prisons, how did it happen that she starved to death 
60,000 in her prisons? 

"And," continued Mr. Shellabarger, in a final burst of 
mendacity, "to concentrate into one crime all that is criminal 
in crime, all that is barbarian, they (the people of the South) 
killed the President of the United States." 

Five days later Mr. Windom of Minnesota undertook to rival 
if not surpass Mr. Shellabarger in mendacity. Standing on the 
floor of Congress, Mr. Windom spoke as follows : 

"The people of the South waged a diabolical four-years' 
war ; they murdered our soldiers in cold blood ; they fired our 
hotels filled with women and children ; they starved our sol- 
diers to death in their prisons, within sight of storehouses 
groaning with Confederate supplies. They polluted the 
fountain of life. They only laid down their arms when our 
victorious bayonets were at their throats ; and, while profess- 



Chap. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. 247 

ing to accept the \ssues of the war, they assassinated the Na- 
tion s President." 

In 1876, eleven years after the South surrendered, Mr. 
James G. Blaine of Maine stood up in Congress and poured 
out a lot of hate-born lies as malignant as human tongue ever 
uttered or human brain ever concocted : 

"Mr. Davis," cried Blaine, "was the author, knowingly, 
deliberately, guiltily, and willfully, of the gigantic murders 
and crimes at Andersonville. And I here, before God, meas- 
uring my words, knowing their full extent and import, de- 
clare that neither the deeds of the Duke of Alva in the Low 
Country, nor the massacre of St. Bartholomew, nor the 
thumb-screws and other engines of torture of the Spanish 
Inquisition, began to compare in atrocity with the hideous 
crimes of Andersonville." 

When his speech was concluded Mr. Blaine's admirers 
rushed up to congratulate him. Mr. B. H. Flill of Georgia rose 
to his feet and confronted them with Stanton's figures. 

"If," said Mr. Hill, "cruelty killed the 23.500 Union sol- 
diers wdio died in the South's prisons, zvhat killed the 26,000 
Confederate soldiers who died in th^ North's prisons? In 
other words, if the nine per cent, of men in the South's 
prisons were starved and tortured to death by Mr. JeflFerson 
Davis, who tortured to death the twelve per cent, of the 
South's men who died in the North's prisons?" 

Mr. Blaine and his friends were dumfounded. Stanton was 
an authority whose figures they dared not assail ; they, as Shella- 
barger, had not chanced to see Stanton's figures. 

Mr. Blaine made no reply to Hill for several days. Finding 
the figures had been quoted correctly, he did not venture to 
deny their accuracy, but attempted to weaken their force ; he 
had not magnanimity enough to admit an error, to regret a 
wrong. His explanation w-as lame, but it was the best he could 
frame. 

"Our men," said Mr. Blaine, "when captured were in 
full health ; they came back wasted and worn. The rebel 
prisoners in large numbers were emaciated and reduced 
from having been ill-fed, ill-clothed, so they died rapidly in 
our prisons — died like sheep." 

This excuse was accepted by Republicans, and the lie that 
the South starved prisoners to death was kept alive, and to this 



248 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

day is often told. In 1892, B. F. Butler, surnamed the Beast, 
wrote a book he called "Bvitler's Book." No one will fancy that 
Butler would willingly speak one kind word of man or woman 
in the South. Butler was a renegade from the Democratic party, 
therefore, like all renegades, hoped to win favor with the party he 
had joined by villifying the party he had abandoned. Butler 
wrote his book twenty-seven years after the South surrendered. 
During all those twenty-seven years the lie that Mr. Davis had 
willfully starved and tortured Union soldiers to death was told 
and retold a hundred thousand times. All that time Butler knew 
the statement was false, but he did not choose to say so until he 
wrote his book in 1892. 

In that book, page 610, Butler says: 

"In the matter of starvation of prisoners the fact is in- 
contestible that a soldier of our army would easily have 
starved on the rations which in the latter days of the war 
were served out to the Confederate soldiers before . Peters- 
burg. I examined the haversacks of many Confederate sol- 
diers captured on picket during the summer of 1864, and 
found therein, as their rations for three days, scarcely more 
than a pint of kernels of corn, none of which were broken, 
but only parched to blackness by the camp fires, and a piece 
of raw bacon about three inches long by an inch and a half 
wide, and less than half an inch thick. No Northern soldier 
could have lived three days on that. With regard to cloth- 
ing, it was simply impossible for the Confederates, at that 
time and months before, to have any sufficient clothing on the 
bodies of their own soldiers. Many went bare-footed all 
winter. Necessity compelled the condition ' of food and 
clothes given by them to our men in their prisons. It was 
not possible for the Confederate authorities to supply clothes 
and food." — Butler's Book, page 610. 

Yet Windom had the gall to assert that the South starved 
her prisoners to death within sight of granaries groaning with 
Confederate supplies. 

While Mr. Davis lay in a dungeon cell in Fortress Monroe, 
and while the whole air of the North was thick with the cries, 
"Hang him ! Hang him ! Hang him !" a number of the leading 
men of the Republican party consulted together, and decided to 
settle the question decisively, was Davis guilty, as charged, of 
cruelty to the Union soldiers in prison ? Gov. Jno. A. Andrew of 
Massachusetts, Horace Greeley, Thaddeus Stevens, Henry Wil- 
son, then Vice-President of the United States, and Gerritt Smith 



Chap. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. 249 

were of the number who were wilHng secretly to admit they did 
not believe Mr. Davis guilty as charged — secretly, not one had 
the fairness to say so openly. However, in the first week of Con- 
gress, 1866, these men sent Chief Justice George Shea of the 
Marine Court to Canada to inspect the official records of the Con- 
federate Government. Judge Shea saw General John C. Breck- 
enridge, then in Canada, and through his influence was placed in 
Judge Shea's hands the official records of the Confederate Gov- 
ernment, which Judge Shea carefully examined, especially all 
the messages and acts of the Executive and Senate in secret ses- 
sions, concerning the care and exchange of prisoners. Judge 
Shea found that the inhuman and unwarlike treatment of the 
South's soldiers in Northern prisons was a most prominent and 
frequent topic during those secret sessions. From those docu- 
ments, not meant to meet the public eye, it was manifest that the 
people of the South had reports of the cruel treatment of their 
loved ones in Northern prisons, and through representatives in 
Richmond had pressed Air. Davis, as the Executive and the Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the South's Army and Navy, instantly to try 
active measures of retaliation, to the end that the cruelties to 
prisoners should be stopped. Judge Shea, in his report of the in- 
vestigation, said : 

"It was decisively manifest that Mr. Davis steadily and 
unflinchingly set himself -in opposition to the demands made 
for retaliation, and this impaired his personal influence and 
brought much censure upon him from Southern people. 
These secret sessions show that Mr. Davis strongly desired 
to do something which would secure better treatment to his 
men in Northern prisons, and would place the war on the 
footing of wars waged by people in modern times, and divest 
it of a savage character ; and to this end Air. Davis commis- 
sioned Alexander Stevens, Vice-President of the Confedera- 
cy, to proceed to Washington as military commissioner. This ' 
project was prevented by Lincoln and Seward, who denied 
permission for Mr. Stevens to approach Washington. After 
this effort to produce a mutual kindness in the treatment of 
prisoners failed, the Southern people became more unquiet 
on the matter, yet the secret records show that Air. Davis did 
not yield to the continual demand for retaliation." 

— Southern Historical Papers. 
Although this report, made in 1866, completely exonerated 
Mr. Davis from the vile charge of having tortured and starved 
prisoners to death, such was the despotism of the party in power, 



250 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

such was the bitter hate Republicans in the North felt toward the 
South, this report was not given to the public until nearly eleven 
years after Judge Shea's report was made. All these eleven 
years every Republican engine, newspapers, magazines, lecturers, 
politicians, were hard at work villifying Mr. Davis and repeat- 
ing the lie that he was guilty of torturing and starving prisoners 
to death ; and this, although Horace Greeley, Senator Wilson, 
Gov. Jno. A. Andrew of Massachusetts, Gerritt Smith and other 
high Republicans knew these charges were absolutely false. Was 
this Shea investigation kept secret from Blaine f While in For- 
tress Monroe cell, sick, feeble, unable to rise from his cot because 
of the iron shackles and heavy iron balls on his ankles, Republican 
cartoonists were using all the ingenuity of their art to picture Mr. 
Davis, not only as contemptibly weak, but as ferocious as a wild 
beast. In the collection of the New York Historical Society are 
preserved a number of these malignant productions. One, enti- 
tled the "Confederacy in Petticoats," shows Mr. Davis dressed as 
a poor old woman, feebly climbing a fence to escape the Union 
soldiers which pursue him with pointed pistols and drawn swords. 
Another cartoon, entitled "Uncle Sam's Menagerie," shows Mr. 
Davis as a hyena in an iron cage playing with a human skull. A 
noose is around his neck connected with a high gallows, and the 
rope about to be -drawn taut. Above the iron cage, in the shape 
of birds perched on little gallows of their own, each with a noose 
around his neck, are figures of other Confederate leaders. Uncle 
Sam, in his usual red and white striped breeches, acting the show- 
man, stands by the iron cage, a long stick in his hand, pointing up 
to the gallows. 

In Toledo, Ohio, October, 1879, fourteen years after the war 
had ended, about four thousand five htmdred ex-Union soldiers 
held a meeting. The object of the meeting, it seems, was to vil- 
lify the South, and especially to iterate and reiterate the lies that 
Union soldiers were willfully starved to death in her prisons. A 
man named Moody made the welcoming address. A few extracts 
from the different speeches will show the spirit of hate that 
ruled the crowd: 

"And now, ladies and gentlemen," said Mr. Moody, "in 
behalf of the thousands that starved and rotted and died in 
the damnable hells controlled by that accursed traitor, Jeff 
Davis (loud applause), assisted by imps like Puppy Ross, 
Captain Wertz and others ; in behalf of every one that lies in 
graves where they were put by traitors, accursed traitors, to 



Chap. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. 251 

their Government, the best in the world ; in behalf of the God 
above, we thank you for this grand reception." 
Col. Streight made a speech, in which he said : 

"I am called on by Copperheads (Northern Democrats) 
to smoke the pipe of peace with Ben Hill of Georgia, and 
with men who stand up in Congress and deny that the 
Union soldiers had been starved and tortured in their prisons. 
Men who lied like traitors, as they are, to get out of it, when 
they say rebel prisoners were abused in Northern prisons. 
(Applause). And now Hill wants to smoke the pipe of peace 
with me. He fills that pipe with rebel lies, with infamy. He 
fills it with self-conceit and self-glory. It makes me sick. 
Hill stands up there in Congress and says the rebel stook 
the best care they could of our men in their prisons. He lies ! 
He lies deep down in his throat ! He knows he lies ! Yet we 
have some persons in this country anxious to forget and for- 
give." (Long and loud applause). 

Garfield was a speaker at that meeting. Garfield's speech and 
Colonel Streight's had been cast in the same mould. The fol- 
lowing is an extract from Garfield's reported speech: 

"The Southern Senators lie like traitors, as they are !" 
shouted Garfield, "when they say our men were treated as 
well in their prisons as the rebels were treated in our pris- 
ons. Hill of Georgia stands up in Congress and lies when he 
says the rebel chiefs took as good care of our men in their 
prisons as they could. Yes, deep down in his throat he lies. 
They were human fiends. Hill is a liar. There is no peace 
with rebels ! They are very anxious to forget and forgive. 
Are zi'e to be friends with traitors ? No ! No ! Never ! We 
have proof that Jefferson Davis was guilty of torturing our 
men in his prisons to death ! It was his policy to make idiots 
of our men by tortures. Southern cruelty never before in all 
the world had its parallel for atrocity. Never can we for- 
give them ! Never will I be willing to imitate the loving kind- 
ness of Him who planted the green grass on the battle- 
fields." 

And all this, twelve years after Judge Shea had made his 
report ! 

Garfield seldom missed an opportunity to give vent to his ani- 
mosity. In a speech in Chicago he said : 

"Never will I consent to shake hands with the South 
until she admits she was wrong, eternally wrong, and the 
North was right, eternally right." 



252 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

In 1879 and 1880, during the Garfield campaign, Republican 
hate became a howling insanity. Judge Yaples, in the Cincin- 
nati Enquirer of 1880, said: 

"Republican hate is grounded on the fact that the people 
of the South will not join the Republican party." 

How could they be expected to join a party which, from its 
birth, had wronged and hated them? 

Garfield's champions boldly declared that when he was elect- 
ed the South would be territorialized, so that the whole country 
could be Africanized, and negroes put in rule over whites and 
upheld by military power. 

A Washington correspondent of the Louisville Coitrier-Joiir- 
iial, 1879, wrote this: 

"At no time since the war has the rancor of the Republi- 
can press been fiercer than it is at this time. No epithet is 
too vile to be applied to the people of the South. They are 
held up as barbarous ruffians, outlaws, murderers, thieves. 
The New York Tribune the other day compared them to 
hyenas, and begged pardon of those beasts for the compar- 
ison. The speeches of Conkling, Blaine, Edmonds and the 
rest are pitched in the same key." 

In December of 1883 the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette 
contained this gem of pure hate and pure lie: 

"If the actual state of things South of the Ohio were 
set before the Northern people they would have no sympathy 
to spare for cruelty in any other part of the world. No other 
land can furnish a parallel to such barbarity as our own. 
From Zululand and Congo, Ashantee and Abysinnia, through 
the Nomadic Bedouins, the Bashi Bazouks, the half-civil- 
ized tribes of Western Asia, to the savage rule of the 
Czar, with his endless procession of political prisoners to Si- 
beria, not one can equal the reign of the savagery which 
exists in the South." 

When this was written the Southern people were hard 
at "work increasing their crops, multiplying their industries, 
enlarging their school facilities, teaching the older and richer 
portions of the country lessons in manufacturing, renewing 
the soil of their fields, and offering the world an example of 
two widely diflFering races living in harmony together." 

A Republican paper, the Lemars (Iowa) Sentinel, during 
Garfield's campaign, said : 



Chap. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. 253 

"On the Fourth of July, 1881, the pig-headed brigadiers 
of Massasip and Kaintuck, Arkansas, Alabam, and the 
whole barbarian Southland, will see their State Constitutions, 
and State sovereignties, and State lines, their ignorance and 
their cowardice, torn up by the roots from their blood-soaked 
soil. Garfield's Presidency is to be the Regency of Stalwart- 
ism ; after that — Rev." 

During Mr. Hayes' campaign, Mr. Howard Kutchins, editor 
of the Fon-du-lac (Wis.) Commonwealth, two weeks before 
election day inserted in his paper the following address to Repub- 
lican voters : 

"To Arms, Republicans!" 
"Men? Work in every town in Wisconsin for men not 
afraid of fire-arms, of blood, or dead bodies. To preserve 
peace and prevent the administration of public affairs from 
falling into the hands of obnoxious men, every Republican in 
Wisconsin should go armed to the polls on next election 
day. The grain stacks, houses and barns of all active Demo- 
crats should be burned to the ground, their children burned 
with them, their wives outraged, that they may understand 
the Republican party is the one which is bound to rule, and 
the one which they should vote for or keep their stinking car- 
casses away from' the polls. If they persist in going to the 
polls and voting for Jenkins (Democrat), meet them on the 
road, in the bush, on the hill, anywhere, night or day, and 
shoot every one of the base cowards and agitators. If they 
are too strong in any locality and succeed in putting their 
opposition votes into the ballot boxes, break open the boxes, 
tear to shreds their discord-breeding ballots, and burn them 
to ashes. This is the time for effective work. These agita- 
tors must be put down. Whoever opposes us does so at his 
peril. Republicans, be at the polls in accordance with the 
above directions, and do not stop for a little blood." 

Hayes became President; in reward for so much party zeal 
he nominated the bloodthirsty Kutchins for the Internal Revenue 
Collectorship in the Third District of Wisconsin. So far as I can 
learn, not a man or woman in the Republican party made any ob- 
jection to Kutchins' savage advice to voters. Yet this is the party 
which to this day weeps tears of sympathy over any negro man 
whose vote is not cast and counted in the South. 

It seems that Mr. Wendell Phillips never fully recovered 
from the gangrene of heart caused by the fumes of blood continu- 
ally rising from battlefields. An article by him in the American 



254 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

Review of March, 1879, shows that a wol-f's, not a human, heart 

still ramped in his breast. 

"Treason," wrot4 Phillips, "should have been punished 
more severely. We all now see that magnanimity went as far 
as it safely could when it granted the traitor his life. His 
land should have been taken from him, and before Andrew 
Johnson's treachery, every traitor would have been too glad 
to be let off so easily. His land should have been divided 
among the negroes, forty acres to each family. Every 
rebel State should have been held as a territory under the 
direct rule of the Government, without troublesome ques- 
tions. Henry Wilson, Vice-President, confessed to me that 
this was the greatest mistake of our party. His excuse for 
the mistake was that the Republican party did not dare to 
risk any other course in the face of Democratic opposition." 

Only a heart gangrened with hate, only a judgment distorted 
by hate, could call the South's resistance to invasion treason. Be- 
fore hate-insanity got in its work on Phillips' brain he declared 
that the South acted on the principles of '76. and that no one 
standing with these principles behind him could deny the South's 
right to independence. The smallest affairs of life Republicans 
slimed all over with the poison of hate. 

Articles like the following adorned Republican newspapers. 
The Topeka (Kansas) Citizen, a Republican paper, in 1879 had 
this: 

"By allowing the worthless scoundrels of the South to 
live, their contemptible seed was perpetuated. They are a set 
of demons, both by nature and practice, and Avhile one of the 
breed is left they will remain the same. As well try to hatch 
chickens from snake eggs as to raise a decent race of human 
beings from the offscouring of the miserable, heartless mur- 
derers and robbers of the South." 
A Chicago paper had this : 

"In their houses, their persons, their food, their habits, 
Southern men and women, as a rule, are unclean. They have 
dogs and hogs and other unclean animals for their nearest 
neighbors, and share their houses with these animals and 
vermin of a different sort." 

Another Chicago paper kindly served notice as follows : 

"When Southern men come North, whether for busi- 
ness or pleasure, they must understand they will not be re- 
ceived as equals." 



Chap. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. 255 

"Robert IngersoU, the favorite infidel lecturer of the Repub- 
lican party, made loud pretense of loving liberty. The follow- 
ing is a sample of the kind of liberty IngersoU lived: 

"When a man," said IngersoU, "talks of despotism you 
may be sure he wants to steal, or be up to some devilment. 
/ am not afraid of centralization ; / want the power where 
somebody can use it. I want the ear of the Federal Govern- 
ment acute enough, its arms long enough, to reach a man 
in any State." 

In 1879 ^^^^ Quincy (Illinois) Whig had this: 

"Every Republican knows that nothing so good could 
' happen to this country, nothing that would be of such advan- 
tage, as a general and judicious slaughter of Democrats at 
the polls. Every Republican ought to take a bayonet to the 
polls for the purpose of assisting the Federal army in the 
work of killing the Democrats." 

The reader must never forget that all the hate Republicans 
felt originated in hate of Democrats. Hate of Thomas Jef- 
ferson's, principles is as inherent and ineradicable in Republican 
hearts as it is in the open and avowed monarchists. 

In 1879 the Lemars (Iowa) Sentinel, a true-blue Republican 
paper, published in its columns Republican opinions of Southern 
people as follows : 

"The South is not and never was aught else but pusil- 
lanimous, perfidious, cowardly. We ask, nay challenge, all 
the Brigadiers in Yah-Hoo land (the South) to show one m- 
stance, one solitary instance in all her history, of either honor 
or courage. We could fill the Sentinel ten thousand times 
with deeds of Southern infamy, treachery, blood-thirstiness, 
mendacity, malevolence, barbarity, ingratitude, ruffianism, 
dishonor, cowardice, rapine, and general hellishness. That 
so infamous, base, sinister, indecent, corrupt, and demoni- 
acal people should ever have enjoyed the reputation of chiv- 
alry or of courage, is bad enough, but that such spawns of 
hell should be rehabilitated with political rights, and made 
• political equals of the brave, loyal, true Northern men, is the 
champion crime of the Nineteenth Century." 

Brevet Major George W. Nichols, aide-de-camp to General 
Sherman when he made that vainglorious march to the sea, 
wrote a book called "The Story of the Great March." Hate so 
warped Major Nichols' mind he made statements so absurd no 



256 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

one outside of imbecile asylums could possibly believe them. 
Instance this from page 173: 

"A characteristic feature of South Carolina has im- 
pressed itself upon all of us. I refer to the zvhining, helpless, 
craven spirit of the men. These fellows are more cowardly 
than children; they whine like whipped boys. There is not 
an officer or soldier in all our army who does not feel the 
most supreme disgust and contempt for those chivalric 
creatures." 

On page 193 Major Nichols has this: 

"The white people of South Carolina are among the 
most degraded specimens of humanity I ever saw — lazy, 
shiftless ; only energy to whine. The higher classes in South 
Carolina represents the scum, the lower, the dregs of civ- 
ilization. They are not Americans ; they are merely South 
Carolinians." 

On page 213 is this: 

"What strikes me most is the evidence of intellectual 
decay. They so want in energy and vitality as to approach 
senility." 

The imbecility of North Carolina's people did not escape 
this sharp-sighted Major. On page 293 he tells of his visit to 
an insane asylum: 

"I found," said the Major, "that the inmates were more 
idiotic than insane. The only inmate ivho gave evidence of 
ever having intellect zvas a man from Massachusetts." 

So completely did the devilish spirit of hate dominate the 
hearts and brains of Sherman and his officers, they had not as 
much kind feeling for the unfortunate women living on the line 
of that march as humane men would have felt for dumb cattle. 
The divine quality of mercy, of pity, had no lodgment in their 
breasts. Major Nichols' book proves this. Soon after entering- 
Atlanta, Ga., Sherman ordered every inhabitant (fifteen thou- 
sand in number) driven from the city. Not a single armed man 
was among them ; they were mostly \\o:v.e.n and children, with a 
few old men. Of this unnecessary measrre. Major Nichols says: 
"The order zvas firmly but kindly executed. They 
zvere allozved to choose zvhich zvay to go." 

Was it this allowance that constituted the kindness? Think 
of it. Christian people! 15,000 women and children, at the point 
of bayonets, driven from their homes into the pathless woods, in 



Chap. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. 257 

the bleak November month, shelterless, foodlcss, to wander about 
as they might. In his report of this to General Halleck, Sher- 
man says : 

"They (the women and children) did not suffer, unless 
for Tvant of food." 

Picture to yourselves. Christian people of this age, the suf- 
fering of 15,000 women and children in such a condition! Of 
this act General J. B. Hood wrote Sherman : 

"Your unprecedented measure transcends in studied 
and ingenious cruelty all acts ever before brought to my at- 
tention in the dark history of war." 

Hood's letter greatly angered the irascible and self-inflated 
Sherman, who wrote to Halleck: 

"I cannot tamely submit to such impertinence. But as 
long as my Government is satisfied I do not care what rebels 
say." 

Sherman's Government was highly satisfied. Every act of 
cruelty to Southern people greatly pleased that cruel and pitiless 
government. Had Sherman ordered the women of Atlanta to 
be prodded by bayonets out of their homes, along their streets 
bleeding, fainting, to the woods, or had he ordered them hanged 
by the dozens until dead on the boughs of the trees, that govern- 
ment would have been fully as well pleased. There is nothing in 
the history of that government to show that it ever manifested the 
slightest disapprobation of the atrocities its armies perpetrated. 
After Atlanta was empty of its citizens, every woman and child 
in the woods, Major Nichols cheerfully informs us that — 

"The soldiers are now resting and enjoying themselves 
thoroughly." 

Resting from the labor of driving women and children out 
of their homes into the woods, and enjoying themselves over 
the suffering caused. After resting the soldiers were ordered to 
burn down the city. Major Nichols says: 

"The houses are now all vacant. The streets are empty. 
A terrible stillness and solitude depresses even those who 
are glad to destroy all. In the gardens beautiful roses 
bloom, the homes are all in flames. In the peaceful homes 
of the North there can be no conception how these people 
suffer for their crimes." 



258 Facts ai^d Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

What crimes? Only hate-poisoned hearts, only hate- 
distorted brains could or can call a war of defense a crime. Re- 
member, oh posterity, from the first to the last of the war, the 
South fought in self-defense. The Republican party fought a 
war of conquest. 

On page 37 Major Nichols says : 

"We are leaving Atlanta. Behind we leave a track 
of smoke and flame. Yesterday we saw in the distance 
pillows of smoke ; the bridges were all in flames. 'I say !' 
said a soldier, 'I believe Sherman has set the very river 
on fire.' 'If he has, its all right,' replied his comrade. 
The rebel inhabitants are in an agony. The soldiers are 
as hearty and jolly as men can be." 

All through his book Major Nichols seems to be anxious 
to show that the greater the sufiferings inflicted on Southern 
people, the healthier and jollier were his soldiers. On page 38 
Major Nichols made the following record : 

"Atlanta. Night of the 15th of November, 1864. 

"A grand and awful spectacle is presented to the behold- 
ers of this beautiful city now in flames. The Heaven is 
one expanse of lurid fire. The air is filled with flying, burn- 
ing cinders. Buildings covering 200 acres are in ruins or 
in flames." 

For 2,000 years the name of Nero has been execrated as 
that of a monster. The burning of Rome was the work of a moral 
monster. Sherman's crime of burning Atlanta proves him to 
have been the greater monster of the tv/o, inasmuch as Sherman 
had been born and reared under the merciful light of Christianity. 
Nero was descended from a line of pagan ancestry on which 
the divine light of Christ's teachings had never fallen. 

On page 39 is a picture of Atlanta in ruins. On page H2 
is a picture which should today, thirty-eight years after that war 
ended, bring the blush of shame to every Republican cheek. This 
picture represents a little cottage on the wayside of Sherman's 
march. In the open door stands a sorrowful woman, a babe in 
her arms ; four frightened children cling to her skirt. Nine 
or ten men in blue are in the yard prodding the earth with bayo- 
nets and sabres in search of the little trifles, trinkets, the sorrow- 
ful woman had hoped to save from army robbers by burying in 
the ground. Of scenes like this Major Nichols says : 

"It is possible that some property thus hidden may 



Chap. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. 259 

have escaped the keen search of our men, but if so it was not 
for want of diligent exploration. With untiring zeal the sol- 
diers hunted the concealed things whenever the army halted. 
Almost every inch of ground in the vicinity of the dwellings 
was prodded by ramrods, pierced by sabres, upturned by 
Spades. The result was very distressing to rebel women 
who saw their little properties taken." 

What can be more contemptible than this? Armed men, 
officers and privates, robbing helpless, poverty-stricken women 
of the poor little trinkets they had hoped to save by burying in 
the ground! And these contemptible deeds are related in a 
boasting way ! 

"It was comical," continued our fine Major, "to see a 
group of these veterans punching the unoffending earth. 
When they 'struck a vein' the coveted wealth was speedily 
unearthed. Nothing escaped the observation of these sharp- 
witted soldiers. The woman watching these proceedings 
was closely watched, her face, her movements, giving the men 
a clue." 

"These searches," cheerfully remarks the Major, "made 
one of the pleasant excitements of our march.'* 

Yes, one; but by no means the only one. Robbing the women 
of rings, pins, silver cups, looting their houses, carrying off all 
they could ; destroying what they could not appropriate, im- 
mensely added to the "pleasant excitements of that march." 
Even the poor little garments, which expectant mothers, with 
patient toil, carding, spinning the thread, weaving the cloth, 
cutting and sewing, had prepared for unborn babes, even these 
poor little things were seized by rude hands, held up to the rude 
jokes and laughter of the jubilant men in blue, then torn into 
strips, thrown on the ground and trampled under foot. 

So useless as a military measure was this vainglorious 
march of Sherman's, even Union officers (General Piatt for one) 
condemn that march. Piatt says : "Sherman could just as well 
have disbanded his army (60,000 strong) as have been guilty 
of the folly of that march." 

On page 207 of Major Nichols' book, I take the following: 
"It w^as usual to hear among soldiers conversations like 
this : 'Where did you get that splendid meerschaum ?' or 
'Where did you get that fine cameo?' 

'Oh,' was the reply, 'a lady presented me this for saving 
her house from being burned.' " 



26o Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

The wit of this Hes in the fact that the trinkets had been 
taken from the ladies and their houses burned also. 

"This style of answer," comments our valiant Major, 
"became the common explanation of the possession of all 
sorts of property. An officer taking a punch from an ele- 
gant chased silver cup, was saluted thus : 

" 'Hello, Captain ! that's a gem of a cup ; where did you get 
it?' 'Oh,' returned the Captain, 'this was given me by a 
lady for saving her household things from burning up.' An 
enterprising officer came into camp one day with a family 
coach filled with hams, flour, and other things, and cried out, 
'Elegant carriage, isn't it? This is a gift from a lady whose 
house was in flames.' " 

Set in flames by the order of the officer who had the car- 
riage. 

"Gold watches, boxes, chains, rings, etc., were got in 
this way." 

"This," complacently remarks our Major, "was one of 
the humors of the camp." 

What do the people of this age think of such humor? These 
men in blue first robbed defenseless women of their small trinkets 
and other little things, set fire to their houses, then lied to their 
comrades, saying the trinkets had been presented to them by the 
women they had robbed. What devilish humor was this? Ma- 
jor Nichols, page 161, says: 

"The Mayor of Columbia, S. C, came out to surrender 
the city, but this did not entitle its citizens to protection." 

Who could expect protection from men whose hearts were 
as devoid of mercy, of pity, of kindness, as wolves or tigers? 
These only rend and kill to satisfy the keen pangs of hunger ; the 
men on that march pillaged, robbed and burned to satisfy the 
devilish demands of hate. 

After descanting on the beauty of Columbia, its flowering 
vines and shrubs, its gardens of roses and fragrant flowers, the 
Major sagely and solemnly says: 

"I could but reflect on how utterly these cowardly 
South Carolinians have lost all pride of nationality." 

If the Republican party, its officers and armies of the 6o's 
represented the real nationality of this country in that time, for- 
ever and forever would that false, unjust, cruel and blood-soak- 



Chap. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. ' 261 

ed nationality be detested, despised, scorned, hated by every 
humane and freedom-loving heart in America ! 

As the reader knows (from evidence given in preceding 
pages of this book), the large majority of the Northern people 
disliked and opposed Lincoln's war of conquest on the South. 
From the first to the last day of that war they opposed it. Nich- 
ols is fond of telling falsehoods which only idiots could accept 
as truths. Instance this : 

"The failure of Jeff Davis has brought down on him the 
hatred and abuse of his own people. Were he here today noth- 
ing but execration would have been showered upon him." 

And this: 

"The people of Raleigh, N. C, were astonished to find 
that Sherman's army were Christian gentlemen." 

Is it possible that Major Nichols himself for one moment 
believed Sherman's army were Christian gentlemen? Would 
any "gentleman," Christian or not, have engaged in the mean 
work of robbing poor women of their small trinkets, the gifts 
of love or friendship ? Would any man with one particle of gen- 
tlemanly feeling have manifested so much pleasure in the suffer- 
ings their cruelties caused. Both Major Nichols and General 
Sherman gleefully parade their wanton wickedness, and gleefully 
wind up such stories by boasting of their soldiers' great enjoy- 
ment of such work. Nichols says : 

"History will in vain be searched for a parallel to the 
scathing and destructive effect of the invasion of the Caroli- 
nas. Aside from the destruction of military things, there 
were destructions overwhelming, overleaping the present 
generation — even if peace speedily come, agriculture, com- 
merce cannot be revived in our day. Day by day our legions 
of armed men surged over the land, over a region forty 
miles wide, burning everything we could not take away. On 
every side, the head, center and rear of our columns might 
be traced by columns of smoke by day and the glare of flames 
by night. The burning hand of war pressed on these people, 
blasting, withering." 

In Sherman's report to Halleck he evidently takes great 
pride in the wanton destruction he has wrought : 

"I estimate," writes Sherman, "that the damage to 
Georgia alone is $100,000.000 — $98,000,000 w^as simple de- 
struction — two millions have inured to our advantage. Our 



262 " Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

soldiers have done the zvork zvith alacrity and cheerfulness 
unsurpassed." 

In Sherman's report to Halleck of the burning of Columbia, 
in 1865, Sherman charged that crime to General Wade Hampton. 
That lie went traveling over the Northern States for ten years. 
In 1875, Appleton & Co. published Sherman's Memoirs, written 
by himself. In volume 2, page 287, Sherman, without a blush of 
shame, admits the lie, using the following words : 

"In my official report of the conflagration of Columbia, 
I distinctly charged it to General Wade Hampton, and 
confess I did so pointedly to shake the faith of his people 
in him." 

What an old silly Sherman must have been to think anything 
he could say on any subject would shake any Southern man's 
faith one way or the other! Sherman's sense of honor was too 
dull to permit his feeling ashamed of lying, ashamed of publicly 
proclaiming he had lied on an honorable man, and from the mean 
motive of injuring him in the esteem of his friends. 

Shortly after the South surrendered, Salmon P. Chase, Lin- 
coln's Secretary of the Treasury, made a flying visit down the 
Atlantic States. On his return, newspapers reported Mr. Chase's 
opinion of the whites and blacks in these States : 

"I found," said Chase, "the whites a worn-out, effete 
race, without vigor, mental or physical. On the contrary, 
negroes are alive, alert, full of energy. / predict in tzventy- 
five years the negroes of the Soiith zvill be at the head of all 
affairs, political, religious, the arts and sciences." 

Though an undisputed and indisputable fact that Guiteau, 
who assassinated Garfield, was a Northern man, a member of the 
Republican party, such was the New York Tribune's blind and 
bitter hate of the South, it promptly accused her people of that 
crime. 

The Republican paper, the I.emars (Iowa) Sentinel, was so 
filled with the imperial spirit during the Hayes administra- 
tion, it addressed that mild President in the following rampant 
style : 

"Rutherford ! are you a man ? If you are, issue a proc- 
lamation ! Proclaim the States of Mississippi and Louis- 
iana in open rebellion against the Nation! Declare every 
State of the old Rebel Confederacy in a state of siege. Call 
an extra session of Congress, exclude every so-called Sena- 



Chap. 32 Facts and Falsehoods. 263 

tor and Representative from the rebellious territory, and 
with a loyal legislature begin. the great work of moulding a 
plastic Nation into form. Disfranchise the rebel States for 
a generation, at least. This is the heroic method and re- 
quires a hero in the van." 

If there is anyone in the North or the South who believes this 
strange hatred of Southern people has died out, let him look over 
the columns of modern daily papers, let him observe the tone of 
modern Republican politicians ; especially let him take a glance 
at modern Republican histories, biographies, lectures, etc. 

On this day, October 14, 1903, a telegram from Louisville, 
Ky., states that the members of the Union Veterans Union, at a 
public reception given them in a large hall in that city, sung 
"We'll Hang Jeff Davis on a Sour Apple Tree." Next day a 
delegate offered a resolution disclaiming any intention to wound 
the feelings of Southerners by singing that song. The resolution 
was voted down. 

A few years ago a convention of educators met in Nashville, 
Tennessee. The delegates were hospitably received and enter- 
tained, free of cost to them. One of these delegates, a woman, 
from the State of Kansas, was entertained in the best hotel in the 
city. While occupying an elegant room, eating and drinking of 
the best the State afforded, this woman wrote a letter for publica- 
tion to one of her own State's newspapers. The Kansas paper 
promptly published it, and the Nashville American reproduced it 
before the writer left the city and the people she so hated. That 
woman delegate's malignant hatred of the South found vent in 
the following sentiment: 

"I hope and pray when I pass away from earth I will 
be able to look down from the heavenly blue above and see 
the black heel set on the white necks of these people." 

As a sample of the way Republican writers do not hesitate 
to tell untruths, I give a few lines from a little history published 
in 1894, written by a woman named Mrs. Emma Cheney. Speak- 
ing of the attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter, Mrs. Cheney says : 

"The rebels had meant to starve the little garrison out 
of Fort Sumter." 

This is not only untruthful, it is ungrateful. Every day the 
people of Charleston sent to Sumter a boat load of food supplies, 
fresh meat, fowls, fruits, vegetables, etc. 

"After Lee's surrender," says Mrs. Emma Cheney, 



264 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 32 

"Jefferson Davis lived in a box car because no man honored 
him enough to give him hospitality." 

This is pure fiction. There was not a man in the South who 
would not have felt honored by having Mr. Davis a guest in his 
house. There was not a woman who would not willingly have 
knelt at his feet and reverently kissed his hand in recognition of 
his high and lofty character, as well as with deep and tender 
affection and sympathy for the man on whose pure and stainless 
name so much malignancy had been poured by his unworthy 
enemies. 

Mrs. Emma Cheney says : 

"Davis disguised himself as a woman and carried a tin 
pail." 

This also is pure fiction ; but what if he had disguised him- 
self as a woman ? A claimant to the English crown, when hunt- 
ed by his enemies, disguised hunself in a woman's garments. As 
he was going to Washington City, Lincoln disguised himself, and 
yet there was no danger except what his own imagination con- 
jured up. 

As late as 1902, thirty-seven years after the war ended, a 
life of Abraham Lincoln was published in Chicago, which re- 
produces, as facts, many malignant lies which have not even a 
shadow of truth to rest on. Instance the following, on page 798 : 

"The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was the culmi- 
nation of a series of fiendish schemes in aid of an infamous 
rebellion. It was the deadly flower of the rank and poison- 
ous weed of treason. The guiding and impelling spirit of 
secession nerved and aimed the blow struck by the cowardly 
assassin." 

On page 799 is this : 

"The conspiracy (to assassinate Lincoln) was clearly 
traceable to a higher source than Booth and his wretched 
accomplices. In the course of the trial positive evidence 
was furnished connecting Jacob Thompson, Jefferson Davis 
and their associates with President Lincoln's assassination. 
This direct evidence is only the keystone of an arch of cir- 
cumstances strong as adamant." 

On page 802 is the following : 

"They (the Southern men) had taken a form congenial 
to their 'chivalrous' interests, instigating and aiding piratical 



Chap. ^3 Facts and Falsehoods. 265 

seizure on Lake Erie, robbing a St. Alban's hotel, burning 
and wholesale murder at New York, and in broadcast diffu- 
sion of pestilence and death throughout Northern cities. Dr. 
Blackburn assiduously labored to spread malignant diseases. 
What further depth of iniquity needed these men before or- 
ganizing the conspiracy to kill Mr. Lincoln? That they did 
enter the scheme is proved beyond a doubt. That Jeffer- 
son Davis, in whose confidential employment all this while 
they were, was consulted as to the plan of assassination, and 
gave it his approval, is shown by direct testimony." 

On page 803 is the following: 

"The expedient of assassination of Mr. Lincoln had 
long been a favorite one, beyond doubt, with many of the 
Southern traitors." 

On page 806 is this : 

"The assassination was not the freak of a madcap or a 
fanatic ; it was the natural outgrowth of the spirit which led 
to rebellion. The barbarous and upstart autocrat who had 
deliberately starved thousands of Union prisoners could 
have no compunction at seeing a chosen emissary stealthily 
murder the ruler of the Nation." 

As long as such lies are told it is criminal for the South to 
remain silent. 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 
Nezv England's Two Insanities. 

We cannot close this work without some special notice of the 
singular mental malady New England brought upon herself, and 
which, being contagious, was caught by large numbers of the 
Republican party in the 6o's. It is known to all that the Creator 
has implanted in the very atoms of the human being, as well as in 
the being of animals, certain instincts for the preservation of life 
and the perpetuity of the race. Among these instincts is that of 
kinship. Our affections first go out to our parents, our children, 
our relatives. Next they go out to the people of our own coun- 
try, our own color and blood. The white race loves white people 
more than it does the yellow, the red or the black. Negroes pre- 
fer their own color ; they naturally affiliate with negroes in 
preference to whites, Chinese or Japanese. This is the law of 
kinship. Any reverse of this law is perversion — perversion is a 



266 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 33 

species of insanity. We have shown that in the year 1796 certain 
New England Federahsts, to attain a certain object they had in 
view, set themselves to work to promulgate the gospel of hate 
toward the people of the South. By dint of teaching hate the 
teachers developed that feeling in their own hearts. As the 
teaching went on, the feeling increased in intensity until it be- 
came an insanity, a monomania utterly beyond the control or the 
influence of reason. Finally it came to pass that from this in- 
sanity of hate there sprung an insanity of love. The former 
was directed toward the white people of the South, the latter to- 
ward the negroes. Without evidence from the papers and publi- 
cations of that day, the white men of this generation will not be 
able to believe that New England, as well as large numbers of 
tlic Pepublican party, came to admire and respect the negro race 
as moraliy and mentally superior to the white. At first this 
strange insanrty only held that the negroes in the South were far 
superior in every way to Southern whites ; but as time passed the 
insanity took on a more violent form, and those so afflicted believed 
and taught that as a race the negro was greatly superior, morally 
and mentally, to the whole Caucasian race, and not only this, they 
came to admire every peculiar quality of the negro, the blackness 
of their skins, their woolly hair. Their whole makeup New England 
orators and writers dwelt on with a sort of worshiping rapture 
and urged intermarriage between blacks and whites, not to ele- 
vate the former, but the latter. 

Extracts from speeches and papers will throw light on this 
subject. In the early stages of his insanity Wendell Phillips 
was fond of announcing to his audiences that "negroes are our 
acknowledged equals. They are our brothers and sisters." As 
time went on Mr. Phillips' distemper became more heated. He 
was not satisfied with asserting that "negroes are our equals ;" he 
made the startling announcement that — 

"Negroes are our Nobility !" 
And began to clamor that special privileges be granted to "our 
nobility." He wanted all the land in the Southern States divided 
and bestowed on "our nobihty" and their heirs forever. What 
"our nobility" had done to deserve this rich reward Mr. Phillips 
did not explain. Perhaps he thought the fact that negroes had 
been brought from Africa in a savage state, and had acquired 
in the hard school of slavery some' of the arts of civilization, fit- 
ted them to become a noble class. 

Governor Stone of Iowa, in a speech made at Keokuk, Au- 
gust 3, 1863, was certainly in the first stages of this insanity 



Chap. 33 Facts and Falsehoods. 267 

when he said to his audience : 

"I hold the Democracy in the utmost contempt. I would 
rather eat with a negro, drink with a negro, and sleep with 
a negro than with a Copperhead" (meaning a Democrat). 

The disease certainly had struck Mr. Morrow B. Lowry, 
State Senator of Pennsylvania, when at a large meeting in Phil- 
adelphia, in 1863, he said to his audience: 

"For all I know the Napoleon of. this war may be done 
up in a black package. We have no evidence of his being 
done up in a white one. The man who talks of elevating a 
negro would not have to elevate him very much to make him 
equal to himself." 

The faithful old New York ludcpcudciit sorrowfully wailed 
over the long delayed coming of the Black Napoleon, which all 
the insane negro-worshipers confidentlv looked for. 

"God and negroes," said the Independent, "are to 
save the country. For two years the white soldiers of this 
country have been trying to find a path to victory. The ne- 
groes are the final reliance of our Government. Negroes are 
the keepers and the saviors of our cause. Negroes are the 
forlorn hope of our Republican party." 

James Parton, the noted biographer, was strongly touched 
with the prevailing disease — insane love of negroes. 

"Many a negro," wrote James Parton, in 1863, "stands 
in the same kind of moral relation to his master as that in 
which Jesus Christ stood to the Jews, and not morally only, 
for he stands above his master at a height which the master 
can neither see nor understand." 

J. W. Phelps, General in the Republican army, thought the 
negro race much better adapted to receive Christianity than the 
white. 

"Christianity," said Phelps, "is planted in the dark rich 
soil of the African nature. Negroes are as intelligent and 
far more moral than the whites. The slaves appeal to the 
moral law, clinging to it as to the very horns of the altar ; he 
bears no resentment, he asks for no punishment for his 
master." 

A little work, ably written, titled "Miscegenation," was pub- 
lished in 1863 or 1864. Before this work was out a white woman, 
Miss Annie Dickinson, called by Republicans "The Modern 



268 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 33 

Joan of Arc/' became a convert to the doctrine of intermarriage 
between whites and blacks and an eloquent expounder of the 
same. Miss Dickinson lectured over the Northern States. It 
was said at the time that President Lincoln and his Cabinet at- 
tended her lectures in Washington City. Miss Dickinson wrote 
a novel called "What Answer?" the purpose of which was to 
illustrate the beauty and utility of marriage between negro men 
and white women, and negro women and white men. The char- 
acters in "What Answer?" are negroes and whites. They fall in 
love and marry in a way to affright and disgust people not up to 
date on such doctrines. The title, "What Answer?" was sup- 
posed to indicate that the author's argument could not be retuted. 
On the night Miss Dickinson was to lecture at Cooper Institute, 
New York City, she was late in appearing ; the impatient audi- 
ence was quieted by the distribution of circulars advertising the 
new work, "Miscegenation," just published. 

George Sala, correspondent of the London Telegraph, was 
then in Washington City, and wrote his paper as follows : 

"Miss Dickinson comes accredited by persons of high 
authority. She is handed to the rostrum by the second per- 
sonage in the North. The Speaker of the House is her gen- 
tleman usher. The Chief of the State (Lincoln) and his 
ministers swell the number of her auditors. She is the god- 
dess of Republican idolatry." 

February, 1863, the correspondent of the London Times 
wrote from New York describing Republican love of the negro 
race: 

"It has been discovered here," wrote the Times corres- 
pondent, "that in many important respects the negro is su- 
perior to the whites ; that if the latter do not forget their 
pride of race, and blood, and color, and amalgamate with 
the 'purer and richer blood' of the blacks, they will die out 
and wither away in unprolific skinniness. The first to give 
tongue to the new doctrine were Theodore Tilton and the 
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. The latter a few months ago 
declared that it was good for white women to marry black 
men, and that the passion and emotional nature of the 
blacks were needed to improve the white race. Mr. Wendell 
Phillips has often hinted the same thing." 

The London Times of February 5, 1862 or 1863, I am not 
certain which, contained copious extracts from "Miscegenation," 
as samples of the love-insanity for the negroes which at that time 



Chap. 33 Facts and Falsehoods 269 

afflicted the Republican party. I also offer a few extracts from 

"Miscegenation :" 

"All that is needed," says the author of "Miscegena- 
tion," "to make us the finest race on earth is to engraft upon 
our stock the negro element which Providence has placed 
by our side upon this continent. (The Providence were 
New England's slave-stealers who imported negroes from 
Africa and sold them to the South's planters). Of all the 
rich treasures of blood vouchsafed to us, that of the negro is 
the most precious. By mingling with negroes wc will be- 
come powerful, progressive and prosperous. By refusing to 
do so we will become feeble, unhealthy, narrow-minded, un- 
fit of noble offices of freedom and certain of early decy. 
White people are perishing for want of flesh and blood ; they 
are dry and shriveled, for lack of the healthful juices of life. 
Their cheeks are sunken, their lips are thin and bloodless, 
their under jaws narrow and retreating, their noses sharp 
and cold, their teeth decayed, their eyes small and watery, 
their complexion of a blue and yellow hue, their heads and 
shoulders bent forward, hair dry and straggling. The waists 
of white women are thin and pinched, telling of sterility and 
consumption ; their whole aspect is gaunt and cadaverous ; 
they wear spectacles and paint their faces. The social inter- 
course between the sexes is acetic, formal, unemotional. 
How different is an assembly of negroes ! Every cheek is 
plump, the teeth are white, the eyes large and bright, every 
form is stalwart, every face wears a smile. American white 
men need contact with warm-blooded negresses to fill up the 
interstices of their anatomy. I plead for amalgamation, not 
for my own individual pleasure, but for my country, for the 
cause of progress, for the world, for Christianity. It is a 
mean pride unworthy of an enlightened community that will 
deny the principle of amalgamation. This principle has 
touched a chord in humanity that vibrates with a sweet, 
strange, marvelous music, awakening the slumbering in- 
stincts of the Nation and the wtDrld. It would be a sad mis- 
fortune if this war should end without a black general in 
command. We want an American Touisant rOvcrturc. It is 
in the eternal fitness of things that the South should be con- 
quered by black soldiers. After that the land of the South 
must be divided among negroes." 

The London correspondent of the Times wrote that paper 

that doctrines of this nature were applauded by large audiences 



270 Facts and Falsehoods. Chap. 33 

of men and women in the North. Time has proved how httle 
the Repubhcan party understood the Caucasian or the African 
race. No Touisant ['Overture appeared on the scene. No black 
general came forward to "fill the eternal fitness of things." On 
the contrary, all during the war the negroes in the South were 
amiable servitors, docile and obedient to their white mistresses 
while their masters were at the front fighting the armed invaders 
of their country. 

Among the cartoons of that time were a number illustrative 
of the doctrine of "Miscegenation." One with that title is now 
in the collection of the New York Historical Society. The Rev. 
Henry Ward Beecher is pictured holding the hand of a big black, 
buxom negress, whom he is presenting to President Lincoln, 
who is bending his head to her as to a queen. The black "lady" 
is dressed in the extreme of fashion, showing all her teeth by a 
happy grin. Near by sits Horace Greeley, treating to ice cream an- 
other big black "lady," arrayed in all her finery. Beyond is a hor- 
ribly ugly black man in a chair, holding in his lap a pretty young 
white girl, apparently pleased with the situation. Near this 
couple is another hideous negro man about to kiss a pretty white 
girl. 

The doctrine of "Miscegenation" highly delighted Northern 
negroes. Frederick Douglas, half white and half black, was es- 
pecially pleased. Douglas addressed a large Republican meeting 
in Brooklyn, 1863, on the subject of amalgamation. He said: 

"There is not now much prejudice against colored men. A 
few days ago a white lady asked me to walk down Broadway 
with her, and insisted on taking my arm ; everyone we met 
stared at us as if we were curious animals. By and by you 
will get over this nonsense. (Cheers). You ought to see me 
in London walking down Regent street with a white lady on 
each arm, and nobody stared at us. And it will soon be so 
here, and then we will all be the nobler and better." 

The London Times during^ the war of the 6o's published in 
its columns extracts from a pamphlet issued in the North, which 
boldly asserted the lie that— 

"The first love of the beautiful young daughters of the 
proud planters of the South was for one of their father's 
negro slaves. The mothers and daughters/' said this in- 
sane writer, "0/ the Southern aristocraey are thrilled with a 
strange delight by daily contact zvith their dusky servitors." 



Chap, ^t, Facts and Falsehoods. 2Y1 

The mothers and daughters of the South, when chancing to 
see insane stuff of this nature, passed it by as the hniacy of a foul 
and distempered mind. 

With this I rest the case which, ere long, will be tried in 
Posterity's Court — the South vs. the Republican party of the 6o's. 

And as a last thought, I offer the reader the prophetic lines 
written by that inspired poet, Father Ryan, of Alabama : 

"There is grandeur in graves, there is glory in gloom, 
For out of the gloom future brightness is born. 
And after the night comes the sunrise of morn. 
And the graves of the dead, with the grass overgrown, 
Shall yet form the footstool of Liberty's throne. 
And each single wreck in the warpath "of Might 
Shall yet be a rock in the Temple of Right." 

Note. 

Numbers of soldiers in the United States armies in 

different wars : 

Revolutionary, 1 775-1 783 309,781 

Northwest Indian War, 1790-95 8,983 

Tripoli War — Naval, 1801-5 3,330 

England, 1812-15 576,622 

First Seminole, Florida, 1817-18 • 7,911 

Second Seminole, Florida, 1835-43 41,122 

Third. Seminole, Florida, 1856-58 3.681 

Black Hawk War, 1831-32 6,465 

Creek War, 1836-37 13.418 

Aroostook War, 1838-39 1.500 

Mexican, April, 1846, July, 1848 1 12.230 

1.085.043 
War upon the South, 1861-65 2,772,408 

Excess 1,687,365 

From above it will be seen the United States employed in its 
four years' of war upon the South 1,687,365 more soldiers than in 
all its thirty-six years of war with England, Tripoli, Mexico and 
the Indian tribes. 



Faols and F 





Concerning the War 

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1861-1865 



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